Longford Noise Barrier Consultation

Here’s our response to the recent local consultation on a noise barrier being installed in Longford. We sent our comments in to Heathrow on 31 January 2024.

This is the link to the feedback form: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=q7czIZJjLEWqIDSvvphgjibYOYmNen5Fk2klUAilXQBUMllXMkpTS0NRVUtJRVUwVUlZOFNXSExDSSQlQCN0PWcu&origin=QRCode

From our Chair, Justine Bayley to Heathrow’s Community Relations:

I am responding to your consultation, aimed at those who live in Longford, about the noise barrier you are proposing to construct to the south of Longford village.

I do not consider that restricting this consultation to those who live in Longford is adequate or equitable as many others who live along the Bath Road and in Harmondsworth will also be affected by the additional noise due to the construction and subsequent operational use of the proposed taxiways. I can certainly hear noise from existing ground movements regularly from my house in the centre of Harmondsworth. As usual, you are doing the minimal consultation you think will be acceptable to the planners without considering the real and far more widespread effects of the infrastructure for which you are hoping to gain planning permission.

I would also point out that in the survey you asked Longford residents to complete, you gave no indications of the varying effects and effectiveness of the options you offered them. My immediate reaction is that any of the barriers would have minimal effectiveness as their proposed site is in a dip in the land surface so much of the noise will transmit over the barrier and be heard at first floor level – where most people sleep. I am of course predicting that most of the construction work will be overnight to avoid disrupting use of the existing taxi-ways; disrupting the sleep of neighbouring communities is of less importance to the airport than disrupting their own operations – despite their claims to be working to become better neighbours.