Topic: | Re:Reports from Heathrow meeting in Hounslow? | |
Posted by: | Tim Henderson | |
Date/Time: | 22/01/08 23:16:00 |
Splendid session I thought - meant to be 1 hour of prepared speeches followed by 30 mins questions/comments from the floor - but the crowd didn't want to stop and Peter Thompson (chairing) kept going until 9.30 with plenty more still wanting to have their say. Speakers were Peter Thompson and Barbara Reid (Hounslow Council), John Stewart (HACAN etc.), Geraldine Nicholson (NOTRAG) and Kathryn Harper-Quinn (Headteacher of ?Hounslow Heath Primary School). The main Council points I took away were : Don't give up - there is everything to fight for "Anybody who ignores the level of opposition being expressed is either extremely foolish or extremely arrogant" Technology improvements should be used to make Heathrow better not bigger (eg noise/pollution gains shouldn't be exploited for more flights) Hounslow had sought a Health Impact Assessment on the expansion proposals from the Department of Health - but it had just been passed to the Department of Transport and kicked into the long grass to be forgotten. John Stewart suggested the fight should be based on challenging the economic arguments (and not purely concentrating on noise/pollution as at T5 enquiry). With current low levels of unemployment in the area, the extra jobs from the expansion can only be met by sucking labour in from outside - meaning either massively increased traffic (if workers commute) or unsustainable strain on housing and other local services if the workers live close to the work.Either way there is little benefit to West London. HACAN also have commissioned a survey to examine the claim that unless Heathrow expands business will move elsewhere. The headlines are likely to be that although Frankfurt/Paris/Amsterdam have expanded, businesses are still coming to London attracted by the low tax regime, the thriving London finance centre; English as the principal language of business and the cultural quality of London life. Expansion is NOT essential to continuing prosperity. Also please sign up to www.stopheathrowexpansion.com and COME TO THE CENTRAL LONDON RALLY ON 25th FEB Geraldine Nicholson from NOTRAG (who I hadn't heard before) spoke with feeling about what the expansion meant personally to her and her neighbours in Hillingdon. Apparently there is one school in the Public Safety Zone of the third runway and another ?3 within a few hundred yards of the airport boundary. Hillingdon councillors and the three MPs are all firmly opposing the expansion. The land grab for the third runway is equivalent in size to the existing land area of Gatwick airport. Kathryn Harper-Quinn gave interesting info about "quieter planes". She told the story that for the maiden flight of the quiet A380 into Heathrow the school went into the playground to watch it pass overhead. Despite the kids being excited and noisily shouting, when the plane went over their sound was drowned by the plane. She is not reassured by the claims at the exhibitions - she doesn't need to try on the headphones - she has heard it for real. Replacement glazing at the school has worked - the noise in classrooms is OK with the windows shut. But there is no solution for spring/summer when the temperatures rise. BAA is still investigating what ventilation can be provided but currently the kids can't be protected from the relentless noise. New requirements for kids to "experience the outdoor learning environment daily" will present a challenge when every 55 seconds there is a 25 second break when no-one can be heard and the flow of lessons is lost. Circumstances are challenging enough with this stop/go education currently but would be far worse if the respite from alternation ceased and mixed mode came in. Floor questions included spots from Ruth Cadbury - confirming that both Alan and Ann Keen were strongly opposed to the expansion. She also had picked up that the business argument was faltering as companies recognised the climate change / green agenda and were cutting back on business flights. She saw much of the demand currently coming from cheap tourist flights and thought that as peak oil occurred this would reduce. Andrew Dakers - spoke about brutality he had witnessed at the Heathrow Climate Camp and thanked the meeting organisers. Tony Arbour mentioned how we were too polite in West London and just let the Government/Heathrow walk all over us. Mary McLeod stressed that we needed to keep the momentum up in the months ahead Paul ?Angers (?new kid on the block as Chiswick councillor?) said we should not be NIMBY and push the aviation expansion elsewhere - we should be seeking better fast train routes as a substitute for flights. Other bits I scribbled down (can't remember who from) : Ministers measure opposition by the size of MPs postbag - keep writing to Ann and Alan. Stress to officials/anyone what the effects of the airport and expansion mean personally to you. They don't like it / can't take it. "How much are our lives worth ?" Legal challenges are being considered - consultation not understandable. 57dB noise level is too high on basis of recent research. HACAN "solution" to "what is the alternative to expansion" could be a restriction in slots allocated to short haul flights. Average number of passengers in a plane is ?147. Average number of seats in a plane is ? 300. Get utilisation capacity up. How many escaped from the crashed 777 ? HACAN planning to do a big leafletting drop in Southall to raise awareness of residents of Asian ethnicities how badly they will be affected. There is a need to publicise the flightpath in Chiswick 'cos people don't know where the planes will be overhead (but HACAN say the proposal maps aren't very definite.) Many affected areas (Feltham and unbelievably some of the extreme air pollution houses in Hillingdon) haven't received the consultation summary and response forms. Lots more - but that's the end of my scribbles ! |