HEATHROW Airport won't revisit plans to build a third runway over Heathrow Villages and will instead propose putting it south-west of the airport, according to reports.
The airport's preferred location for an additional runway is the Stanwell Moor area, according to the Evening Standard, as it prepares several options for expanding Heathrow and providing the necessary extra hub capacity required in the south east.
This option would result in less homes being demolished, and fewer additional communities finding themselves under flight paths, but expansion could lead to up to 220,000 more flights a year. Last week, Heathrow published its latest noise mitigation measures, which included fining airlines with the noisiest aircraft, and steeper descents.
The government's Airports Commission is accepting submissions from interested parties on new runways and airports until July 19.
Heathrow Airport said it will give full details of its proposals then, but declined to comment further.
This may come as good news to people living in Sipson and surrounding areas, whose homes were in the footprint of, or would have been blighted by the previous third runway proposed by the Labour government in 2009. Campaigners successfully halted the plans in a High Court challenge the following year.
John Stewart, chair of Heathrow campaign group HACAN, said: "This is a clever plan which Heathrow hopes might neutralize opposition amongst some of the communities and local authorities which successfully opposed a new runway to the north of the airport.
"It would create less noise disturbance than a northern runway but we will oppose it because a whole new runway of planes will be massively disturbing to vast swathes of people across London and the South East."
The Commission will publish an interim report at the end of this year, which will shortlist the proposals it will examine further. A final report will be published in summer 2015, after the next General Election.
Heathrow Airport is expected to argue that at this stage they have no plans for a fourth runway.
Send your views on Heathrow's expansion plans to jack.griffith@trinitymirror.com
