Heathrow expansion and aircraft noise

Heathrow plays a vital role in the west London economy. It is the single biggest source of jobs in the area.

The council wants to see Heathrow thrive and prosper. Few local people may derive their employment from the airport but many of us enjoy the benefits of air travel and the relative accessibility of Heathrow.

The issue for the council is how best to manage Heathrow's insatiable desire for growth - and how to ensure that residents living under the flight path are protected from the inevitable noise nuisance that goes with a busy airport.

Terminal 5

The council - and many others in London and the South East - opposed the plan for a fifth terminal. After a long running inquiry the current Government pronounced in favour of the expansion in November 2001.

The inquiry opened in May 1995 and included 525 days of hearings spread over 46 months.

The additional terminal will handle as many passengers as Gatwick.

The inquiry inspector admitted in his findings that on safety grounds expansion at Gatwick or Stansted would have been preferable.

The new terminal opened in 2008.  

A new third runway 

In January 2009 Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon announced the go ahead for a new third runway. At the same time he abandoned plans to end the practice of alternation on existing runways. This means that for the time being at least people in Wandsworth will continue to enjoy some respite from noise when arriving aircraft switch runways.

The third runway will increase capacity by 222,000 flights a year by 2030.

The council and the 2M Group responded fully to the consultation document 'Adding Capacity at Heathrow' on which Geoff Hoon's decision was based. You can view these responses at www.2MGroup.org.uk.

You can view the original consultation document at www.dft.gov.uk/heathrowconsultation and download the council's formal response on this website.

To help residents understand where the new flight paths for a third runway might go we have produced two maps. These are not definitive and should not be relied on. The top map shows indicative departure routes and the lower one shows arrivals.

Alternatives to expansion

The council believes there is now growing doubt as to the reliability of the Government's forecasts on future demand for air travel.

If demand is to be met on the scale envisaged there are better ways of doing this than by simply adding extra runways at existing airports where the noise and other environmental problems affect so many people.

The 2M Group has published a plan for high speed rail links between central London and Scotland. It has also developed proposals for a network of local rail lines running through Heathrow that would take a million cars off local roads.

You can view these at www.2MGroup.org.uk