Council welcomes further Heathrow consultation

15 January 2020

The airport has announced that it will hold a further public consultation to finalise airport expansion proposals. The Council has had significant concerns over the direction of Heathrow's plans and these issues have played a part in Heathrow holding this latest consultation.

The consultation will last eight weeks and be launched in April and Spelthorne residents can review and offer their feedback. These will feed into the final planning application, which they intend to submit towards the end of the year.

The consultation will include updates on specific changes to Heathrow's masterplan; construction proposals, surface access strategy; and updated environmental information relating to proposed compensation measures. This consultation will be smaller in scope and geographic area than the previous statutory consultation exercise, and will not be a full re-consultation on the plans.

Spelthorne Council previously expressed support for the third runway as this could bring significant benefits for Spelthorne's economy. However, that support comes with caveats and the Council will only continue to support a third runway and associated airport expansion if the following conditions are met:-

• the 16 requirements recommended by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee must be met (listed below)
• impacted communities must be properly compensated via the Wider Property Offer Zone scheme
• the Heathrow West proposal should be further explored to ascertain if this is a viable proposition

Leader of the Council, Cllr Ian Harvey said: "I am delighted that Heathrow have launched a further consultation as we have been encouraging Heathrow to improve their transparency, so our residents can make an informed opinion about the project. While we are largely supportive of plans for expansion as it could bring significant benefits for Spelthorne's economy, we will not allow their plans be to the detriment of our residents. As part of our ongoing engagement with Heathrow we will continue to press for our needs to be met. Our specific 16 requirements will continue to form a large part of our response to this latest consultation."

More information on the Council's work in relation to Heathrow expansion can be found here: https://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/heathrow

Spelthorne Council's response in September 2019 can be found here: https://www.spelthorne.gov.uk/finalconsultation

Heathrow's press release can be found here: https://mediacentre.heathrow.com/pressrelease/details/81/Expansion-News-23/11951