Consultations, Petitions, Surveys...
John McDonnell MP in St Mary’s church, Harmondsworth
John McDonnell, our local MP, organised a public meeting last Thursday to update local residents on Heathrow's new 3rd Runway consultation, and how we can effectively get our voices heard. The St Mary's Church in Harmondsworth was packed out as John went through the essential details of the new Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS) and urged us to respond - even if its just a quick email.
Paul Beckford from the No 3rd Runway Coalition
Paul Beckford from the No 3rd Runway Coalition then mentioned a few of the many flaws surrounding this HENPS, starting with... on Thursday 18th June, under cover of the Makerfield by-election, the government quietly released its public consultation for the HENPS. Paul said it's hard to grasp the scale of what is planned in London - the equivalent of building another Gatwick airport next to Heathrow in London, and requiring the seventeen lane M25 to be rerouted. Despite this, the brief consultation will only run until 1st September, while MPs and the public are off on their summer holidays. He wondered if the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham realised how massive this investment is for the South East - instead of Northern airports. Paul continued with problems for the Government’s Four Tests, surface Access, increase in noise, pollution, night flights and handed us this brief response guide.
How to respond
It’s important that as many people as possible respond to the HENPS consultation in their own way. Remember you do not have to answer every question in the survey and to focus on the issues that matter most to you.
or
if you can only spare a few minutes, please consider sending your thoughts about expansion:
To : HENPSconsultation@dft.gov.uk
Subject : HENPS Consultation : Personal thoughts
Say what you think about Heathrow and the 3rdRunway.
Press "SEND"
(when responding to the consultation by email, please copy in you MP and councillors)
or
in writing to: Airports National Policy Statement Review Team, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR.
A few other things are going on (ack. Stay-Grounded):-
1. Adding your name to Friends of The Earth Petition to Stop Aviation Expansion :-
2. Hillingdon Council (which includes all of Heathrow Airport) remains firmly opposed to any airport expansion.
3. Monthly No3rdRunway Coalition meetings (Facebook)
4. The recent CISHA Forum meeting where Thomas Woldbye - CEO of Heathrow Airport Limited said:
if I had the money, I'd want to buy (the 3rdRunway houses) tomorrow.
But we all know heathrow hasn't any money and is in debt to the tune of at least £14 billion!!
5. We've also attended Heathrow's Neighbourhood Group meetings where Heathrow's future draft DCO consultation documents will be first reviewed.
6. There was Arora's Heathrow West Consultation in Colnbrook where they just displayed pop-up’s - similar to their last consultation (in 2019?).
7. Beleaguered local residents have received and either binned or read pages and pages of Heathrows Land Planning Survey - even though they filled them in years ago in (2018?) and this DCO doesn't require the forms for another two years!
8. There's a public AEF webinar meeting:- Understanding the draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement
next Monday 20th July at 10am
Join Zoom Meeting ID: 846 6931 4876
Passcode: 794614
9. Campaign against Climate Change have an open "Airport Expansion vs the Climate - Heathrow crunch time" meeting on:
Monday 27 July, 7pm
You can register here to get the Zoom link:
10. Stay Grounded have a new toolkit : Legal avenues to challenge airport expansion!
11 Here are links to some of the Draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS) documents:-
- Speech from: Department for Transport and The Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP
- Heathrow expansion: promoter engagement with the Home Office
- Equality Impact Assessment
- Health Impact Analysis
- Appraisal of Sustainability
- Surface access vision
- UK aviation forecast 2026
- Increasing airport capacity in the south-east of England
- Economic impact modelling (dreaming?)
12. Press extracts:-
- Reeves mis-sold Heathrow expansion to the cabinet, Labour MPs and the country
- Airports in Europe account for more emissions than Latin America, the Middle East and Africa combined.
- BBC - Heathrow's 'critical' expansion blueprint released
- Alex Chapman's analysis at the New Economics Foundation:
- CAA's H8 price holding consultation cap for Heathrow Airport Limited Closes on 28th Jul.