AN ANNOUNCEMENT on the future for people living in the path of a proposed third runway at Heathrow is now expected to be mere days away.
Indications all seem to point to permission being granted for a planning application to be lodged by BAA and this morning (Monday) members of the pro-expansion group Future Heathrow carried several newspaper adverts pushing for the Government to say 'yes.'
Campaign groups are vowing not to give up in light of the apparent victory for the aviation industry, with No Third Runway Action Group accusing Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his ministers of refusing to meet with real people.
Chairwoman Geraldine Nicholson, of West Drayton, said the Government had chosen to be wined and dined by the industry instead and was not surprised to hear the decision was likely to be in favour of a new runway.
She said "All indications are that approval for Heathrow Expansion will come this week, but with sweeteners thrown in such as a rail hub and legally binding agreements on pollution and noise.
"Unfortunately, for the Prime Minister, those legally binding agreements are already there and would have to be obeyed anyway, so those promises don't hold water.
"Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Justine Greening, the MP for Putney, clearly show that the figures have been manipulated to get the "right" outcome for BAA, you can't sweeten the fact that the figures have been fudged and we are being lied to, the environmental case has not been made.
"You cannot escape the fact that 220,000 extra flights and 25 million extra road traffic movements do not equate to less noise and less pollution."
"The social impacts have not been clearly spelled out, you can't sweeten the loss of a home; the destruction of communities; the loss of schools; the detrimental effect on thousands of childrens education; the detrimental effect on the health of millions; the misery of millions of residents from noise under the flight paths.
"The government go-ahead for expansion at Heathrow is only the start, there is too much at stake, we are not going to give up until these proposals are erased completely."
