Heathrow expansion consultation

Never-ending noise

The Government consultation into expansion at Heathrow finished on 27nd Feb 2008. A 'decision' is expected in the autumm.

However, this is only an 'in principle' decision. The actual decision can only be made after BAA has submitted a planning application and there has been some form of inquiry. By then, there could be a new government.

There is widely held view that the consultation was rigged. In particular it was been shown that that the government and BAA colluded to show that Heathrow expansion would not breach air pollution limits ("evidence fix"). The government officials responsible for the Heathrow project are David Gray and his boss Jonathon Moor at the DfT (Department for Transport).

Although the formal consultation has finished, this is only the start of the lobbying and campaiging. The government has already said that it wants to expand Heathrow and the consultation was widely seen as just 'going through the motions'. But while the government can ignore what we have said in our responses, it ignores at its peril the political conseqences of expanding Heathrow. That is why campaigning and lobbying now are now more important than ever.

Local politicians from all parties say they oppose expansion. But they have no say – the decision will be taken by the national government. This is the position of the national parties:
Labour: strongly in favour
Conservative: unable to decide
LibDem: opposed, but support expansion at other airports where there is less local opposition
Green: opposed to expansion at Heathrow, but also opposed to expansion at other airports

West London Friends of the Earth has put in a major response to the consultation of c45 pages. See full response (word document) which includes an 'executive summary'. This response does not cover in any detail the economic issues as these are covered by the national FOE response.

An outline of the issues is given below and a briefing is available as a 2-page flier. More detailed 2-page fliers are available on noise and on climate change. There is also a solid 10-page economics briefing, which exposes huge flaws in the government's economic case for expanding Heathrow.

Outline of proposals and issues

The proposals are for a 3rd runway and a 6th terminal. In the interim the government is proposing to introduce ‘Mixed Mode’ on the current two runways. This is a scheme whereby one runway may be used for bot landings and for takeoffs. It means that communities which presently get relief from noise for half the day would get noise all day.

If the plans go ahead, the number of planes could rise from 473,000 a year to over 700,000. The government has said that after Runway 3 is built, the interim Mixed Mode mode would be removed. But the government and BAA never make concessions. If Mixed Mode is not rescinded movements could go up to around 800,000.

A third runway will require the demolition of at least 700 homes and forced re-location of thousands of people. It will bring more noise disturbance, more air pollution and more danger to those people who remain. It will also greatly increase climate-changing emissions.

The consultation was divisive and misleading. It asked many questions including specific impacts on households which will vary from one location to another. But no questions actually asked people if they support a third runway or the introduction mixed mode. The answers could therefore be used to divide communities and to suggest there is no widespread opposition to expansion. It was also misleading and deficient in vital aspects – economics, noise, air pollution, public safety and climate change.

The government recently published a major new noise study called ANASE - see AEF web site. This showed that noise levels of much less than 57 decibels (dB) cause severe annoyance. The government has ignored its own report and continues to use 57dB in assessing the impact of Heathrow expansion. The reason being that the use of figure of 50dB suggested by ANASE would show far more people are affected by aircraft noise.

Air pollution (nitrogen dioxide) threatened to stop Heathrow expansion because of the threat of legal action if government knowingly allowed pollution to breach EU health limits. New air pollution estimates were carried in secret by the government and BAA. They conveniently show that the air pollution would be just within limits! It is estimated that 1,000 Londoners die every year from air pollution.

Heathrow is by far the most dangerous airport in the country in terms of total or ‘societal’ risk. This is because of the large number of big planes overflying large populations. The consultation ignores the increased risk of people being killed on the ground in a crash.

A third runway would increase emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from Heathrow aircraft by some 9 million tonnes pa by 2030. This is as much as the entire country of Kenya. Such increases will make it impossible to achieve the 60% cuts by 2050 that the government recognises as necessary in its climate bill, let alone the 80% that most scientist now believe is needed. The consultation ignores the climate imperative.

Now that the formal consultation is over, different methods of lobbying are needed. Contact us or, even better, join your local FOE group.

Links

FOE general leaflet (two side A4, Word document).
FOE noise leaflet (two side A4, Word document).
FOE climate leaflet (two side A4, Word document).
FOE economics briefing (10 pages, Word document)
West London FOE response to consultation (45 pages, Word document).
'Stop Heathrow Expansion' web site
HACAN web site
NoTRAG web site
Back to Heathrow introduction
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Mar 08