Heathrow to consult public over third runway - but not about noise

The public will be able to comment on Heathrow’s third runway as part of a consultation carried out by the airport from January, though the plans are being criticised for not including information on new flight paths.

The public planning consultation will start on January 16 and run until March 28. The public will be able to comment on the design of the terminals, plans to mitigate the environmental impact of the third runway, the area where flights should be concentrated and also what to do with the M25.

When Prime Minister Theresa May backed the £16bn expansion in October 2016 the plan came with controversies with critics warning of the possible impact of air quality and noise levels in the London community.

The airport’s executive director for expansion Emma Gilthorpe said, “over the past year, we’ve been working hard to evolve our expansion plans and have come up with several new options to deliver it more responsibly and affordably”.

She added, “we’ll be sharing these options in a 10-week public planning consultation and we want to hear what you think. By working together throughout the consultation, the public can help shape our plans and, jointly, we can ensure that expansion delivers for our passengers, businesses across Britain and importantly for our local communities”.

Heathrow’s expansion should have been published in the summer but it was delayed after airline companies raised concerns over the expensive £17bn proposals.

Paul McGuinnes, the chair of No Third Runway Coalition, said the announcement was “disingenuous”.

"To claim that the public are being consulted, when the only subjects up for discussion exclude the matters on which the public is most concerned, is little more than a charade," he said.

He added "locals want to be consulted on the flight paths for the extra 250,000 extra flights each year, and to learn which communities will start to be adversely impacted by aircraft noise for the very first time".

The airport said it would compensate property owners of the houses being demolished for the expansion by paying them full market value and an extra 25%. It also said that there would be a 6.5 hour ban on night flights.

The responses of the public consultation will help create the expansion masterplan. MPs are set to vote on the Heathrow expansion plan in parliament in the first half of 2018.