Justine Greening MP 

Justine has represented our community’s concerns about extra aircraft noise and pollution from an expanded Heathrow. Since she was elected, she has done her best to set out those to Ministers and will continue to represent local concerns as the next phase of the consultation process gets underway.

The Government is currently consulting on a draft Airports National Policy Statement which is about airport expansion, including a possible third runway at Heathrow, and on UK airspace policy which will affect flight paths. Both consultations close on 25 May 2017. The Government has also recently consulted on the next night flights regime which will start in October 2017 and Justine’s response has reflected the concerns of many residents who would like to see a night flights ban, progressively reducing them to zero over the next regime.

Justine will continue to keep residents fully informed on all these issues to ensure that the local community can have its say.

Wandsworth Council

Conservative run Wandsworth Council has long opposed the expansion of Heathrow Airport and the construction of a third runway. People living in Putney and elsewhere in the borough are woken from just after 4am as the first flights of the day roar overhead. I believe the airport is in the wrong place and to develop it further would make life unbearable for local residents. 

If Heathrow seeks to become a “hub” in competition with Amsterdam’s Schiphol, it will doubtless seek to build a fourth runway to reach the necessary capacity, which would mean new additional flight paths across London.

When the Labour Government tried to expand Heathrow, Wandsworth Council took them to the High Court and had the scheme thrown out on environmental and noise impact grounds. Those issues are just as acute today.

Wandsworth Council is a founder member of the 2M group. This is an all-party alliance of more than 20 local authorities concerned at the environmental impact of Heathrow expansion on their communities. The group, which took its name from the two million residents of the original 12 authorities, now represents a combined population of five million people.

We accept there is a business case for expanding airport capacity in the South East that needs to be explored. Boris Johnson and his team had consistently argued that a purpose-built Thames Estuary Airport could act as a “hub” airport with the necessary capacity to meet forecast increasing demand for direct links to growing markets in Asia and around the world. I think that option should be explored thoroughly as an alternative to the overdevelopment of Heathrow.

We recognise that there are divergent views across the Borough on the future of Heathrow and are keen to hear your views on the potential third runway.  

It is important to know that we are continuing to reflect the predominant local opinion on this important issue. I would therefore be most grateful if you could take a moment to complete a very brief survey (click here) to tell me what you think about the options.