Council calls for ‘absolutely critical’ public transport improvements if Heathrow expansion goes ahead

Windsor and Maidenhead council has stressed the need for ‘absolutely critical’ transport infrastructure to be included as part of Heathrow Airport’s expansion plans.

In July, the Government received Heathrow Airport’s initial proposals for a 3,500m third runway, with the project expected to cost £49billion.

A rival bid was also submitted by the Arora Group, featuring a shorter 2,800m third runway.

The Labour Government has given its backing for the expansion to go ahead so the Royal Borough is now working with the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group (HSPG) to reduce the negative impacts of any potential expansion.

Its three priorities focus on controlling night flights, getting local environmental benefits, and a ‘fair’ economic deal locally.

But councillors raised further concerns over the transport infrastructure needed to be implemented ahead of the expansion during a meeting of the council’s aviation forum on Tuesday, October 14.

Liberal Democrat councillor Richard Coe explained how he had attended a Heathrow Strategic Planning Group meeting earlier that day.

He said: “What was concerning at the HSPG meeting I think, was the sort of view from Heathrow that they could go for these extra passengers without providing the extra transport infrastructure.

“You already see the traffic around Heathrow. We actually need the extra rail links to handle the amount of traffic we already have before they expand.

“But they [Heathrow representatives] were very much focused on their profit margin rather than the community around them. There was a gap between us and them, I would say.”

According to Heathrow Airport, the new runway is expected to bring in 276,000 new fights a year. This would take the total from 480,000 to 756,000.

Chris Joyce, the council’s assistant director of placemaking partnerships and sustainability, said that airlines usually ‘argue very strongly’ against investing into transport improvements. 

“[The] delivery of that public transport infrastructure is absolutely critical. It’s not just about issues around sustainability and taking traffic off the road.

“It’s also kind of fundamental to the economic argument in my view – the economic benefits will be linked to the transport connectively,” Mr Joyce said.

Cllr Julian Sharpe (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) agreed and said that Heathrow will ‘push back very strongly’ and argue that railway improvements [for links to and from Heathrow] are not for the airport to provide.

Aviation forum chairman, Cllr Mark Howard (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham) was further concerned about the ‘worrying number of car parks’ that are part of the expansion proposals being put forward.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRs) after the meeting, a Heathrow Airport spokesperson addressed these concerns.

A spokesperson for the airport said: “Improving public transport links into Heathrow and boosting the numbers of passengers and colleagues travelling by sustainable transport methods is at the heart of our expansion plan.

“We will continue to listen and work with local communities to address these key priorities.”

According to Heathrow, the expansion will ‘consolidate’ over 20 existing parking facilities into two new parkways which will be located next to ‘key road infrastructure’ to help reduce congestion for surrounding local communities.