Blueprint to recommend a third runway at Heathrow

The report, due to be published this week, sets the scene for new runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

It also raises the prospect of a new airport in the Thames Estuary but campaigners claim the proposal is just an attempt to appease them and will never get off the ground.

Government ministers have argued in favour of expansion to cope with the increasing number of passenger flights, which are expected to double over the next 30 years.

And they have indicated that a third runway at Heathrow would ensure the airport could compete with its European rivals.

For Battersea, Putney and Wandsworth residents living under the flightpath, a third runway would mean more noise, pollution and air traffic.

They have pledged to fight the proposals, which come just eight months after the Government said there should only be 480,000 flights to Heathrow a year after granting planning permission for a fifth terminal at Heathrow.

John Stewart, chairman of the anti-aircraft noise group HACAN ClearSkies, said: "A third runway means a third flightpath. It means tens of thousands more people will be under a flightpath to Heathrow.

"Within a year the Government is now saying there is a possibility of a third runway, which of course would completely rule out the flight cap. People are feeling cynical and misled."

Councillor Kathy Tracey, cabinet member for transport, said: "Instead of caving in to industry pressure for concentrating yet more activity at Heathrow, ministers should order a rigorous cost benefit study that, for the first time, would properly weigh the case for and against building a new airport."

July 15, 2002 10:00