Local communities surrounding Heathrow Airport appear to be more receptive to the idea of expanding the site after Parliament’s approval of a third runway was passed two weeks ago. A survey conducted by Asian Voice has found that many living in and around the West London area believe the project will bring both national and local benefits that outweigh the potential negatives of such a large project.
Of those surveyed, 65% of our readers “are in favour of the third runway” being constructed at the UK’s largest commercial hub. The positive sentiments stem primarily from the potential economic benefits that such a project would bring to both London and Britain as a whole. 76.3% of respondents believe that the expansion will bring “substantial economic benefits to the UK”, with 35% stating that their primary reason for supporting the project is “the maintenance of London as an economic powerhouse post-Brexit”.
This reflects a trend seen in polls conducted by other news outlets prior to the vote on June 26th of this year, with many living in the borough of Hounslow suggesting that they were shifting to a more positive perspective on the matter. In a survey conducted by Hounslow council in 2017, “44% said they support a third runway, which includes 18% who strongly support it, and 29% oppose it”. This number of 29% opposition is a 4% decrease from a survey conducted two years prior by yourHeathrow, which stated that “33% opposed” proposed expansion plans at that time.
An increase in local support is likely down to Heathrow Airport Limited (the company chosen to carry out the expansion) altering their proposal after extensive consultation with community leaders and activists. Heathrow Consultation 1, which was carried out between January and March 2018, “sought views on [the] emerging proposals in terms of what the expanded airport could look like…including proposals for compensation and noise insulation”. It is this recognition of local concerns that appears to have led to an uptick in support.
Virenda Sharma MP, whose borough of Ealing Southall borders Heathrow, believes that “the new plans for a third runway have been developed in response to concerns that the community and I raised”. Speaking exclusively to Asian Voice on all matters Heathrow, Mr. Sharma stated that “since 2008 when I resigned from the front bench over Heathrow expansion the proposals have changed significantly.
“The new plans now feature significant safeguards and commitments to local communities. Under the newest proposals there will be a ban on scheduled night flights, more money for soundproofing of schools and homes and longer guaranteed respite periods. Furthermore, the proximity of Ealing Southall to Heathrow means that with a third runway more flights will be take a course that doesn’t go over the constituency.”
Mr. Sharma’s change of position over the growth of Heathrow is also based around the potential economic benefits that more flights could bring to the airport: “Heathrow Airport is the most significant employer in our local area, and support from the government for expansion is a vote of confidence in the airport’s continued role as the heart of the West London economy. There are local families in which two generations have already worked in Heathrow, expansion guarantees well paying, high quality jobs for a third generation”.
Mr. Sharma, and 415 of his Parliamentary colleagues, have chosen to back the plan laid out by Heathrow Airport Limited. This is a sentiment reflected in our own poll, in which 70.5% of respondents stated they thought that this plan was “the best for Heathrow”. This is in spite of the fact that the alternative Arora Project will cost and estimated £17bn less.
Asian Voice spoke exclusively to Kaushal Niraula, the Group Director of the Arora Project, about why they believe their proposal is better for Heathrow.
Mr. Niraula told us that by employing “the world’s leading airport designers and infrastructure planners (Bechtel and Corgan), organisations which have substantial experience and expertise in airport development projects around the world”, the Arora Group have been able to put forward a proposal that will be “efficient and cost effective”.
This is down to the fact that the Arora plan “concentrates all new terminal capacity in a single location to the west of T5” and that the group require “significantly reduced land requirements compared to HAL”. Asian Voice contacted the leaders of HAL for a response to these claims by Arora, but has yet to receive a response.
However, many communities and Members of Parliament are still opposed to the principle of expansion in the first place, creating bitter divisions among some living in close proximity to the site. Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP for Richmond Park, stated to Asian Voice that “Heathrow’s third runway is the wrong answer for the community I represent and for the whole country”.
Speaking to us following the Parliamentary vote, Mr Goldsmith went on to say that “It would be an environmental blight on the local area, it would see taxpayers faced with an excessive bill, and it would see growth sucked out of the rest of the country. I would much rather see regional airports like Manchester, Birmingham and Gatwick allowed to compete on an even playing field.
“Thousands of people have made the area surrounding Heathrow their home, and they have been repeatedly promised that there would be no third runway and that their homes would be safe. Sadly, some people are always going to be impacted by major infrastructure decisions, but the people around Heathrow would suffer the double injustice of seeing their community destroyed for a project that isn’t worth it for them or for the rest of the country”.
Mr. Goldsmith, who famously resigned his seat in 2016 over the issue, does not believe that Boris Johnson, another local MP who previously claimed that he would “lie down in front of the bulldozers”, should follow him in resigning: “Boris has been a long term critic of the third runway, and I suspect that without him, it would have been green-lighted many years ago. So I am grateful to him for all he has done. Had he resigned this week, we would still have lost the vote by a big margin, as well as losing the most powerful advocate against expansion from the Cabinet, where key decisions on this are still to be made”.
Mr Goldsmith is not alone in his defiance of the proposed expansion. A group of local councils are planning to bring legal action in an attempt to block the expansion despite overwhelming support from MPs. Rather embarrassingly for the Prime Minister, the local council in her constituency of Windsor and Maidenhead have declared serious interest in joining the action brought about by the conglomerate of Richmond-upon-Thames, Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham.
The Conservative council leader from Wandsworth, Ravi Govindia, said that he believes the proposals put forward by Heathrow Airport Limited and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling would not withstand ““independent, lawful and rational” scrutiny in the courts. In a statement made to Asian Voice, Mr. Govindia said “We are very convinced of our cause and having previously succeeded in the courts we are confident we would do so again”.
London’s mayor Sadiq Khan and the environmental activist organisation Greenpeace have also publicly declared their support for the judicial review. While it appears highly likely that the third runway at Heathrow will be built as planned, and with a majority of public support, local dissenters are not going down without a fight.
