The latest Heathrow public consultation includes proposals, which will cause major disturbance to all Chiswick residents with more flights, more noise and more pollution, even if the Third Runway does not go ahead. Everyone is urged to respond.
- Heathrow are proposing options that would result in 29 flights directly over Bedford Park between 06.00 and 07.00am – one plane every 2.4 minutes – at very high decibel levels, likely to wake people up. Up to 40 overhead flights per day are proposed at this stage, before implementation of the new runway.
- If the Third Runway is built, we would be even more significantly affected with incoming low-flying aircraft (at 2,000 – 3,000ft), 47 flights per hour (one every 1.5 minutes) and with all of the flights above the key 65-decibel level. There will be 17 departing flights per hour (one every 3.5 minutes), all above 65 decibels.
Urgent need for all residents to respond to the consultation before the deadline of 4 March
While efforts continue in an attempt to challenge the Third Runway at the political level, it’s vital that as many people as possible complete the questionnaire to ensure that, in the event the proposals are implemented, the least damaging options for Chiswick residents are adopted. In a number of instances the options are equally undesirable but the consultation forces us to select the “lesser of two evils.”
Unfortunately, the information in the consultation is very complicated and confusing; even the numbering is inconsistent. We have developed suggested responses for you to make in your submission designed to make the process much quicker and easier than the minimum of 45 minutes advised by Heathrow. There are two versions:
- A set of responses specifically tailored for residents of the Bedford Park Conservation Area emphasising issues specific to the houses, such as restrictions on soundproofing.
- A set of responses for the broader Bedford Park area and Chiswick covering all the relevant issues to be made [this is coming shortly, please check again in 24 hours]
You can cut and paste text these from the documents but wherever practical, we recommend that you adapt the wording slightly rather than copying our version completely so that submissions are not dismissed as being based on a standard template. However, if you don’t have time to do this, it is more important to submit a response!
The deadline for responses is 11.55pm on 4 March.
How to respond
You can complete the questionnaire:
- online. Our suggested responses fit the restricted word count for each question.
- you can submit your responses to each question by email.
- by post to FREEPOST LHR AFO CONSULTATION
To find out more about the consultation
The majority of the consultation is about airspace change, noise, respite, directional preference and night flights, which will follow the construction of the third runway, and full details are available online.
Previous consultation in 2018
The Society submitted a formal response and encouraged everyone to submit an individual objection, as the volume of objections lodged is critical.
Campaign group HACAN produced a very useful list of key points which covered the main objections to the proposals.
The Society’s response is available here.
The original full proposal produced by the Government can be seen online.
More detailed facts and figures are also available on the Airport Watch website.