Heathrow bosses seek to merge forums

HEATHROW are consulting on reducing its various forums, including on aircraft noise, local community engagement, local transport, better neighbour group, air pollution group and many others. It wants to merge at least 13 separate forums into just one meeting.

Combining all these different groups into one will reduce the accountability of the airport to the communities both in the immediate vicinity and beyond. Even the Heathrow Community Engagement Board is being wound-up, as the airport can no longer fund it.

Although Stop Heathrow Expansion doesn’t sit on these forums, we know plenty of community organisations both local to Heathrow and slightly further afield, with an interest in making areas around Heathrow a better place to live, who do have places on them.

Heathrow’s ‘streamlining’ of this community engagement appears to be a drive to reduced accountability which flies in the face of the Airport’s repeated pledges to act as a better neighbour. The pandemic is no reason to reduce that engagement.

To see full details of Heathrow’s community forums review, visit https://www.heathrow.com/ company/local-community/ community-forums-review. You do not need to be a member of a forum to respond, but please do so by the deadline – 5pm on Friday, February 12. The email for responses is communityengagement@ heathrow.com

Geraldine Nicholson Stop Heathrow Expansion stopheathrowexpansion.co.uk