Hillingdon Council has come under fire from Stop Northolt campaigners for alleged "fake news" delivered to households in the council's magazine.

The campaigners believe the article, published in the taxpayer-funded Hillingdon People, was biased and gave selective quotes from a parliamentary debate into government plans to spend £45 million upgrading the runway and renovating RAF Northolt .

Stop Northolt believes the MoD is using government funding to make the airfield more attractive to commercial planes, having hosted around 12,000 non-military flights at the airfield every year since 2013.

Spokesmen for the MoD have repeatedly told getwestlondon that the airfield only offers some of its spare capacity to private planes and the revenue generated from this "ensure we get the best return for the taxpayer".

The article, titled "Government puts an end to RAF Northolt speculation" quoted Tobias Ellwood MP as saying: "I assure...residents of the area that no current active planning is looking at any further changes to that 2013 decision about the cap or the operating terms and conditions."

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence went on to admit RAF Northolt "will remain under-utilised by the military for a large proportion of the time”, which was not reported in the Hillingdon People article.

The comment led campaigners to question why the government was spending £45 million upgrading an airfield that is not fully utilised, stoking fears commercial flights will be subsidised by taxpayers funds.

The article was printed in the November/December 2017 edition of Hillingdon People

In a Hillindon Council meeting on November 2, before the "fake news" accusation was levelled, leader of the council Ray Puddifoot took aim at Stop Northolt, telling them to identify themselves and explain their funding.

Councillor Puddifoot said: “We defend our residents against inappropriate developments such as HS2 and the Heathrow expansion plans, and believe me if there was any truth at all in the scaremongering rumours about expanding Northolt Airport, being put about by an unidentifiable but well-funded group similar to Back Heathrow, we would be leading the fight against that.

“In fact, in the interests of openness and honesty, we need to put out a challenge to those funding and running the Stop Northolt Campaign, to either 'put up or shut up'.

"By the end of this month I would ask them to send to me the names and addresses of all involved in managing the campaign and a list of all expenditure incurred to date, with details of who is providing the funding and the amounts provided to date.

Leader of Hillingdon Council, Cllr Ray Puddifoot



“We will publish this request and details of the responses in the next edition of Hillingdon People and allow residents to judge for themselves the validity and purpose of this organisation."

Responding to the claims made by Stop Northolt, Mr Puddifoot elaborated, saying: "If this is a genuine residents’ campaign, they will have no hesitation in providing the information requested.

"However, if they are a commercial organisation or self interested individuals they will duck and dive and prevaricate doing anything to avoid providing a truthful answer.

"Should that, as anticipated, be the case our residents can make up their own minds as to the real interest of the organisers of this campaign and as a council we will treat them appropriately.”

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