Questions have been raised over whether a third runway at Heathrow Airport is supported in Reading.
There has been discussion about creating a new runway for planes at Heathrow for years.
While the project faced a legal challenge fronted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2020, this was overturned by the Supreme Court, allowing the project to go ahead.
Plans for the runway were resurrected in June last year, with Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves confirming the government will proceed with the runway.
But there are questions over what impact an expansion would have on Reading and the environment.
At a Reading Borough Council policy committee meeting, councillor Rob White (Green, Park), the leader of the opposition, said: “The proposed third runway remains a contentious issue, with significant implications for Reading and the wider region.
“Expansion would bring increased flights, traffic, and freight movements, with knock-on effects for our local transport infrastructure.
“Given Reading’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency, it is vital to understand the council’s stance on this development.
“Expansion would exacerbate existing issues of congestion on our roads and public transport, worsen air pollution—already at dangerous levels in parts of our town—and significantly increase aircraft noise.
“Moreover, the additional carbon emissions from more flights would make it even harder to meet our climate targets at a time when urgent action is needed to reduce them.
“For these reasons, Greens strongly oppose a third runway at Heathrow.”
He then accused Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer of ‘flip-flopping’ on the issue of Heathrow expansion after voting against it in June 2018.
The query was answered by John Ennis (Labour, Southcote), lead councillor for climate strategy and transport.
He said: “Having declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, the council supports the decarbonisation of the airline sector and advocates responsible consideration of flying by business and residents alike.
“Beyond this, our role as council is to ensure that our local infrastructure and services support sustainable travel and economic development policies in relation to the wider infrastructure development which is determined at national level.
“In this way we hope to both improve our impact on climate change locally, noting that airline emissions are not included in local emissions inventories, but also influence the national debate in moving towards a more sustainable aviation sector with improved local sustainable transport connections.”
Cllr Ennis then referred to an answer from 2019, which referred to the Davies Commission, that supported Heathrow expansion.
He argued that a more pressing issue would be the creation of a Western Rail Link to Heathrow, to provide trains from Reading and Slough to the airport.
Cllr Ennis said: “Current public transport links to Heathrow Airport are unacceptably inadequate and poor given the existing level of flight operations.
“The proportion of passengers currently using public transport to access Heathrow is amongst the lowest of any of the large comparable international airports.
“There is an immediate need for a range of public transport improvements covering buses, light and heavy rail, and cycling.
“The council strongly endorses this view and believes that it is wrong to therefore link the funding of projects such as the Western Rail link to Heathrow to future airport expansion, when the need for such schemes is NOW.
“Improvements to public transport links to and within Heathrow must be in place well in advance of any possible expansion taking place in order to improve current accessibility let alone future demands.”
