Heathrow Airport Ltd is seeking permission from Hillingdon Council for a new-taxiway under Planning Application No: 41573/APP/2024/2838. Heathrow says the taxiway is important for the ongoing redevelopment of the airport but what of communities like Stanwell Moor who will suffer unnaceptable noise should it go ahead?
Stanwell Moor is Heathrow's nearest neighbour and our residents live directly under the Southern Runway flightpath. The village is geographically unique as we are a small isolated community surrounded by the M25 to the West, the A3113 North, Kind George VI reservoir to the South and the Heathrow Airport to the East,
For six-decades the residents of this small community have had no option but to suffer with the noise and the pollution from this airport because we live directly under the Heathrow flight path and the truth is we should have been compensated decades ago.
However we are now told we are to be further impacted by airport expansion whereby planes landing over our village will increase (10-FOLD INCREASE) from 36 to over 300 aircraft (per day). This while still having to deal with hundreds of aircraft taking off from the Southern Runway over our homes every day every 45-seconds.
Prompting Jim McIlroy who launched the community compensation campaign in 2018 to say: There can be no longer be any question that Stanwell Moor residents must have the security of WPOZ. It is simply inconceivable that the village closest to and most severely-blighted by the airport is not included in this compensation package when villages never before or not so affected by the airport are compensated.”
I reported on the 14th November 2024 that Heathrow Airport had submitted a planning application 41573/APP/2024/2838 to include the creation of a new 'hold area' at the western end of the northern runway. Plus the construction of new access and exit taxiways.
This taxiway, if approved: - Will devastate our community and our quality of life.
More new noise from more aircraft landings. While some reports say our village has 36 landings per day and while those of us who know (our residents) would argue this - for this sake of this article let's accept this.
We are about to experience a (10-FOLD-INCREASE) in aircraft noise, aircraft pollution. Yet at the time of writing Heathrow has still NOT compensated us for the hundreds of landings and take-offs every 45-seconds from the Southern Runway that our residents suffer every single day!
HALs offer of ‘windows and doors’ has residents on the Stanwell Moor asking. - WHY NOW?
Why are HAL offering this to us, when this taxiway is on the Northern Runway side of the airport on the Bath Road?
Some say because they need to appease (Longford, Cranford, Isleworth) and even Southall and this would be a fair assumption. However the reality is that approval of this new taxiway is not only important for planning application being presented to Hillingdon Council. - It is "CRITICAL" if the THIRD RUNWAY plans are to go ahead.
In my opinion the insulation offer for Stanwell Moor at this time is no more than a cynical attempt to control the narrative and stop (any objections) to their Hillingdon Council planning application which was published on 14th November 2024.
Check the image it shows an outdated 69db+ Leq contour for Stanwell Moor in 2021. - We regularly record 80db+ to over 100db around the village which is totally unacceptable!
This new taxiway WILL unquestionably create intolerable 'NEW NOISE' for us. From hundreds of "new flights" landing every day over Stanwell Moor and Heathrow building a noise barrier at Longford/Bath Road will not mitigate ANY NOISE FOR US!
WHY? - We will suffer the noise long before the aircraft reaches any barrier!
(QUESTION) Will we get windows and doors anyway, as the expansion goes ahead?
ABSOLUTELY, YES. - Heathrow bosses know (this and other measures will need to be rolled out) as expansion plans go forward. *Heathrow will be obligated to offer not just windows and doors, but other forms of insulation too.
(QUESTION) Could accepting this offer, impact on our long-running campaign for WPOZ?
YES, - It could enable the airport to imply we have accepted this token gesture and they need do no more.
Residents have come to me with their concerns over a morally corrupt unfair scheme that will see some (but not all) of our residents being offered new doors, windows and other insulation measures.
My response to Heathrow offering insulation as a partial answer is; Your offer ignores the fact that every single resident of Stanwell Moor is impacted by airport noise. While appropriate insulation measures might work toward solving 'internal noise issues' these must apply to every resident. Futhemore it would only do so if Heathrow Aitrport Ltd commits "significant and appropriate resources" to mitigate the impact of aircraft noise.
If any airport seeking expamsion is truly serious about residents health and wellbeing, cost should never be a consideration. - The reality is we need "TRIPLE-GLAZING" as a minimum, given the noise we currently experience and this is without factoring in the amount of additional aircraft and "NEW NOISE" we will experience once this taxiway is approved and 300 more planes (per day) fly over our village!
CONCLUSION: Not enough is being done. Not enough funds are being allocated to successfully mitigate aircraft noise. There is little use in having internal insulation if it means our only respite is when we are (inside our homes). That we are unable to enjoy outside spaces, or socialise in our gardens with our friends and family.
More than ever our residents need the security that is being offered to other communities who do not have anything near the airport blight that Stanwell Moor suffers. Some have never been affected by the airport at all.
Should this taxiway be allowed then we are about to know more blight and more "new noise" than we have ever known in the history of our village.
Stanwell Moor is about to experience "NEW NOISE" on a massive scale, and I call on Heathrow Airport to do the right thing. Accept their you're not affected by 'new-noise' excuse for not granting the village WPOZ STATUS no longer has a leg to stand on and grant us the world-beating compensation they promise and they have afforded much less blighted areas. Heathrow must purchase homes on the village from residents who want to leave at the market value of the property "as if expansion had never been promised or taken place" plus a 25 percent uplift
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