Councils and pressure group unite for 'day of action' against Heathrow expansion

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HACAN's booklet will make disturbing bedtime reading for residents

Local councils are calling on the Government to shelve its plans for more flights at Heathrow as part of a nationwide day of action against airport expansion to be held on Thursday 12th January 2006.

This day has also been chosen by HACAN to publish a booklet setting out its concerns at the impact of further airport expansion on people in south and west London.

Entitled 'No more quiet periods', the booklet warns residents that ending the current 3pm 'turn-round' when planes switch runways will deprive them of any daytime relief from the noise of aircraft landing overhead.

Using the two runways in parallel for take offs and landings could add an extra 80,000 flights year at Heathrow and breach the legally imposed capacity limit for the airport.

A cap of 480,00 flights was imposed as a condition of the Terminal Five planning consent. Even without the additional terminal the airport is already handling 470,000 flights a year.

The group's Chair, John Stewart, said �The proposals to end runway alternation are just part of the Government�s relentless determination to bring more planes into Heathrow regardless of the consequences for the residents under the flight path. It is the half day�s peace and quiet which makes life bearable for many residents in West London. It�s their lifeline. I�m sure they will fight tooth and nail to oppose mixed-mode.�

Council leader Edward Lister added:
"The council warned during its 2004 High Court challenge to the Airports White Paper that
ministers were setting no limits to Heathrow's growth. Although much attention was focused on Stansted the reality was that the industry wanted expansion at Heathrow.

"With a third runway already planned for 2015 ministers now want to squeeze every last drop of
capacity out of the two existing runways before then. The extra capacity created by making
maximum use of all three runways could potentially be equivalent to building a new airport the
size of Gatwick.

"People in Battersea, Wandsworth and Putney will pay the price for this relentless growth. The
immediate threat is the loss of daytime relief. We are being pushed towards the point where there will be no such thing as a quiet period during the day."

Consultation on the proposal for dual use of the existing north and south runways is expected to start in March 2006.

January 11, 2006