Heathrow expansion – Draft Airports National Policy Statement

The Government is currently seeking views on the draft the Airports National Policy Statement. Details of the consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/heathrow-expansion-draft-airports-national-policy-statement.

There are a number of consultation events taking place, such as one in Bracknell on Thursday 16 February 2017 at Carnation Hall. Further details are available on the consultation page.

3 Comments

  1. alan jutson
    February 18, 2017

    RG41

    I went to the presentation/exhibition at Carnation Hall.

    Clearly no expense spared, but precious little actual information.

    NO route yet for the the proposed re-aligment of the A4 even suggested.

    NO proposed Flight path Routes shown.

    No details on the bridge/tunnel over/under the M25 and whether or not they will take in a possible future need for widening.

    No information on future noise levels yet, as this is to be overseen by a new organisation not yet set up.

    NO information on size, scale, number of terminal buildings.

    NO information on construction traffic routes.

    Asked a number of questions of different people present and got the same telephone type cue card responses from them all with little fact, because nothing really has been proposed yet, other than the vague site outline.
    The attendants present said all of the detail will all be taken care of at the Planning Application stage, but only after Parliament has given the green light for the project.

    Quite shameful really that after all of this time, so little information is available.

    What exactly are you going to discuss in Parliament John ?

    Yes I fully accept that we need more airport capacity, a lot more, so why concentrate just on Heathrow and put all of your eggs in one box.
    As I understand it Heathrow suffers more fog problems than other sites, so what happens when Heathrow with its new 50% increased capacity is closed due to that factor, where is the spare capacity elsewhere to take that traffic (already in the air)

    The sensible option would be to expand Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead, or alternatively build a new additional airport if you want increased capacity, and thus spread the load and the risk.

    Such a large concentration of air traffic, only at Heathrow, in my view is very high risk.

    All the figures at the presentation/exhibition showed massive expansion of air traffic over the last 30 years, and suggests the increase will continue.
    This project is proposed to come on stream in 17 years time, do you really think one extra runway is going to be the solution to future air travel expansion/demand. ?

    Surely you need to get ahead of the curve, and look at larger more comprehensive and a more sensible and varied solution, which does not cram all future traffic expansion into one area.

    1. alan jutson
      February 18, 2017

      RG41

      Almost forgot

      NO details of any additional/increased traffic capacity measures for the proposed increase in passengers.

      Heathrow is already a chaotic place if you want to collect or drop off passengers by car, as many who live within 20 miles of the airport want to do for their friends and family.

      All terminals need a much more friendly and accessible drop off or collection point. Limit it to 3 – 5 mins maximum if you like, and perhaps have a special area for those who are disabled and require a little longer, but let people at least be able to use the car rather than public transport which is a desperate waste of time if you live locally and have a problem carrying your suitcases and baggage, as not all passengers travel light.

  2. alan jutson
    February 23, 2017

    I see Heathrow are cancelling flights today due to high winds and the possibility of snow.

    Rather underlines the point made in a previous post of not putting all eggs in one basket/box, and the problems of concentrating all expansion at one site.

    I also see that just three protesters blocked the entry tunnel for all vehicles entering the airport for a couple of hours one day last week, they may have been mindless, but this caused exactly the same effect as could be caused by a simple but a large accident.

    If you spread the load, you spread the risk and thus have much more flexibility.

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