AN ADMISSION from the government that plans to build a third runway at Heathrow have stalled have been welcomed by a campaign group opposing the proposal.
Last week, Slough MP Tan Dhesi organised a parliamentary debate on the future of a rail link to the airport.
Responding to the MP’s questions about the rail link, transport minister Huw Merriman said the funding for the trains was dependent on private sector money.
“The decision of the House was that the third runway could proceed, but after the pandemic, that decision moved,” he said.
“A lot of the benefits of the scheme are wide, and I support them, but they also go towards the mitigation that a third runway would need.
“Obviously, a third runway is now looking as though it will not go ahead, which makes the business case for the scheme that bit harder.”
He said one of the reasons for this change was that Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd was focusing on the recovery of the aviation sector in the wake of the lockdown phase of the covid-19 pandemic.
“This, of course, had an impact on the financial contribution from the private sector,” he added.
Mr Merriman cited the Government’s commitment that Heathrow expansion “remains a private sector project that must meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable and in the best interests of consumers.”
Campaigners say they believe that if the project is now officially stalled, then a memorandum of understanding must be passed to not permit expansion at the airport for a certain number of years in order to give local communities a rest from the ongoing blight which they face from continued threats to their homes and communities.
Paul McGuinness, chair of the No Third Runway Coalition, said: “The time really has come to put an end to the ongoing blight, caused to so many residents, by Heathrow’s continued quest for a third runway.
“If even the Government acknowledges that it’s now very unlikely to happen, peace of mind should be restored to the vast numbers who live around the airport and beneath its flight paths – by ruling out the prospect of this extremely damaging project once and for all.”
The third runway project may not be dead: on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last month, Heathow’s financial director Javier Echave said: “We are getting more and more full and therefore we are looking at when is the right time to really restart the programme.
“This is a decision that we can’t rush, it’s an important decision and complex decision and therefore we will get into that as fast as we can.”
