Consultations on Heathrow

The government and Heathrow have carried out several consultations on the expansion of the airport.

2019

In June 2019 Heathrow launched a 12-week consultation unveiling their plans to lower the M25 for the third runway to cross, reroute rivers, and remove swathes of green-belt land for airport buildings and new super-sized car parks.

The consultation ran from 18 June to 13 September 2019 and covered topics including plans to manage the environmental impacts of expansion, including a proposed Heathrow Ultra Low Emissions Zone, Heathrow Vehicle Access Charge and a proposed 6.5-hour ban on scheduled night flights.

See the Council’s response to the consultation

2017

In October 2017 the Government was forced to launch a consultation for a second time on its proposed 'National Policy Statement' (NPS) for airports. This followed complaints from councils, that they had withheld important new information back from the public.

Now, thanks to the lobbying and legal efforts from four local councils, the latest consultation finally includes information on long-term aviation forecasts and the new national air quality plan - both missing from the original consultation. In addition, for the first time, the Government has been forced to admit that expanding Gatwick airport makes financial and environmental sense.

• See the Council's statement on the consultation
• See the Council's response to the consultation (pdf, 396 KB)
• See additional information submitted to Transport Select Committee 

2016

On 25 October 2016 the government announced its support for a new northwest runway at Heathrow. The scheme was taken forward in a draft ‘National Policy Statement’ (NPS) – which was out for public consultation for 16 weeks. The deadline was 25 May 2017.

Richmond Council, along with Hillingdon, Wandsworth, Windsor and Maidenhead Councils, expressed concerns that the Government’s consultation on expanding Heathrow Airport is misleading and does not provide a balanced view of the scheme’s costs and benefits.

See the Council's statement on the consultation.

The government sent a consultation leaflet to around 1.5 million homes around the airport. It listed a series of economic benefits and mitigation measures, but did not include information on increasing aircraft noise levels, pollution impacts, health impacts, taxpayer costs, traffic increases or the loss of noise respite periods.

Therefore, to help residents understand the impact that Heathrow will really have on their local community, Richmond Council, along with the partner councils, created our own flyer, which was sent to households across Richmond upon Thames. View the Heathrow Expansion flyer (pdf, 1770KB)

Drop-in sessions were hosted by the Department of Transport for residents to have their say on the proposals. We also created a helpful ‘prompt card(pdf, 511KB)’ to understand what questions to ask.

Alternatively, residents could register their thoughts by using the freepost card that was sent with the Council flyer, or copies were available from local libraries or the Civic Centre. They were asked to return these to the Department for Transport (DfT).

See the Council’s response to the consultation (pdf, 2.2 MB).