Royal Borough council reaffirms opposition to Heathrow's third runway

Campaign groups and the Royal Borough council have reaffirmed their opposition to Heathrow’s third runway after the airport’s expansion was cleared for take-off by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

In a speech on economic growth in Oxford on Wednesday morning, Ms Reeves said a decision on the runway had been ‘delayed, avoided and ducked’ for too long.

In her speech, she said: “I can confirm today (Wednesday) that this Government supports a third runway at Heathrow and is inviting proposals to be brought forward by the summer.

“We will then take forward a full assessment through the airport national policy statement.

“This will ensure that the project is value for money and our clear expectation is that any associated surface transport costs will be financed through private funding and it will ensure that a third runway is delivered in line with our legal, environmental and climate objectives.”

Heathrow’s proposed expansion has had numerous false starts and challenges over the past 20 years, and has proved to be a highly-divisive issue in the neighbouring Royal Borough.

Campaigners have decried the potential environmental impact of expansion, as well as raising noise concerns, particularly in the Windsor area.

But Heathrow is also a major employer in the area, and business groups have said expansion could provide an economic boost in the Thames Valley.

Windsor and Maidenhead council has long been an opponent of the expansion of the airport and previously set aside £150,000 for a legal challenge against the proposals under the previous Conservative administration.

Royal Borough council leader Simon Werner said the council and Liberal Democrats are continuing to oppose the third runway.

He added: “We also want to see action now on limiting passengers and flights and cracking down on night flights. We also need to see an independent body with teeth to hold the airlines to the agreements they have made in the past and have consistently broken.”

Maidenhead MP Josh Reynolds expressed his disappointment and said he is ‘frustrated by the Government’s lack of understanding’.

He added: “The environmental costs of a third runway at Heathrow put both our planet and our community at risk. Labour could see this in opposition, why not now?

“My constituents in Maidenhead deserve growth that improves their lives and local area, not growth that will take years to deliver and lead to big increases in pollution and health risks.”

Windsor’s Conservative MP Jack Rankin also hit out at the plans, describing them as a ‘sticking plaster solution to the long-running issue of airport capacity’.

The No 3rd Runway Coalition, which includes local campaign groups and politicians, has run a long-standing campaign group against the proposals.

Chair of the group Paul McGuinness, said: “We assume Heathrow expansion was chosen because it has become the totemic mission impossible.

“Yet, the plan is not only eye-wateringly expensive. It entails flattening villages and tunnelling over the M25’s busiest junction to increase Heathrow’s size by an area that is larger than Birmingham airport, to fly as many extra planes as Gatwick currently flies – effectively to build the UK’s second largest airport next to the first.

“And all in the most overflown and densely packed residential region in the UK.”

But the third runway has received the backing of the council and MP in neighbouring Slough.

MP Tan Dhesi said: “If built, it will undoubtedly bring countless economic benefits to Slough, Berkshire, and the entire UK.”

Paul Britton, chief executive of Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the news of a potential expansion was welcome.

He added: “The argument for a third runway has been well rehearsed. Thousands of new jobs, market access, competitiveness for the UK. Building capacity at Heathrow will create better connectivity to global markets for local businesses but also for communities across the whole of the UK through regional airports.”

Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: “A third runway and the infrastructure that comes with it would unlock billions of pounds of private money to stimulate the UK supply chain during construction.

“Once built, it would create jobs and drive trade, tourism and inward investment to every part of the country.”