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Plans for a new 729-space car park near Manchester Airport have been approved - despite pleas from climate activists to reject it after the town hall declared a climate emergency.

Manchester City Council gave the green light to the temporary car park, just off Enterprise Way, in yesterday’s planning meeting.

The e-commerce company the Hut Group behind the application said the car park was necessary for its employees near the airport while construction work was ongoing at another car park site.

And they argued that they were promoting sustainable travel through their travel plan.

The town hall’s planning committee voted to approve the temporary car park - albeit for two years, rather than the requested five.

But activists - and some councillors - said that the decision undermines the climate emergency that the council declared last year.

Woodhouse Park councillor Brian O’Neil said: “There is a climate emergency. That does not exclude and should not exclude Manchester Airport and its partners that work around the airport site.”

He estimated that up to 4,000 car journeys could be taken per day by shift workers at the site, and pointed to the respiratory health issues faced by residents in south Manchester.

“The pollution level is not acceptable,” he said.

Dr Marc Hudson, from citizens group Climate Emergency Manchester, had told councillors: “What is before you I know is not a runway or terminal expansion, it is just another car park. Just one more. Just another. The longer we go on, the harder it is to stop and at some point, we have to stop.”

“We are barely coping with one degree of warming, two or three degrees of warming - which are entirely possible within the lifetimes of people in this room - will bring changes beyond description.”

He argued that infrastructure decisions made by the town hall since the declaration of a climate emergency back in July - such as a roadworks scheme at Great Ancoats Street - had already undermined the council’s position on the environment.

The car park itself is not attached to the airport but instead is for employees based at the Hut Group - which has a site at Airport City.

The Hut Group said it needs the extra capacity while construction work is ongoing at another car park on the site, as staff numbers continue to grow.

Council officers pointed to the jobs created by the company - nearly 1,000 in the past 18 months, many of which have gone to Manchester residents.

The Hut Group said that its plans for expansion would ultimately see up to 10,000 staff working at Airport City and pointed to the investment it had made in the city - £150m on this phase alone.

Council officers also pointed to the company’s travel plan, saying that it encouraged staff to cycle to work and would include a shuttle bus.

But Coun Jon-Connor Lyons - one of two councillors on the planning panel to vote against the plans - said that the Hut Group had ‘missed an opportunity’ to be more ambitious.

Speaking after the planning meeting to the M.E.N., Marc Hudson from Climate Emergency Manchester said: “The planning and highways committee has just given approval for yet another temporary car park - they seem to be satisfied with two years but this will be rolled over. This is not a surprise.”

“If citizens of Manchester want better decisions, they will have to educate and pressure councillors relentlessly because the climate emergency was clearly greenwash,” he said.