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Boris Island – a stalking horse for Heathrow expansion?

We returned this week once more to the great UK runway debate, albeit this time without much noise from the Thames estuary.

Boris Island has, of course, been banished for a few more months to the necessary long grass, while the Davies Airport Commission decides whether or not the idea has the legs to develop. 

And while Transport for London continues to make a good case for retreating from Heathrow – a case which I have to say still strikes me as being very big, very bold and very attractive - in reality, right now we have just the Gatwick option on the table to challenge the Heathrow contenders.

Certainly Gatwick has put together a good plan. It is a plan which, to be honest at £7.8bn I could easily see being given the Davies’ nod on the strength of its political deliverability if nothing else. The least worst option some might (unkindly) say.

"While few resident or politicians around the area want to see Heathrow expand and bring more noise pollution and congestion, the prospect of the hub disappearing all together and heading to the Thames Estuary is a nuclear option no one (beyond perhaps Hillingdon Borough) really wants"

But having spent an afternoon this week marshalling debate over the future of west London with or without Heathrow expansion and listening to the options on and off the table, my focus right now is on the case for Heathrow. 

I have to say that the revised Heathrow Airport plan is now taking shape and moving up the credible and deliverable scale.

Not least because there are really clear signs that Heathrow has at last started to engage with the locals and listen. 

Perhaps it is the impact of incoming chief executive John Holland-Kaye, whose career has seen him in a number of commercial but very customer focused roles. It is that customer/stakeholder focus which will be vital to winning the argument locally and politically.

So moving the runway away from key villages is good thinking; as is reducing the noise and congestion impact; and, of course, boosting the compensation packages being offered to those affected is a master stroke and frankly the sort of thing the French might do. 

Yet for all that there remains a deep scepticism amongst the key local authorities in the region who simply don’t seem to believe anything the experts put in front of them. 

Which brings me to the final contender – Captain Jock Lowe and the Heathrow Hub. Who, I maintain, could not listen to this former Concorde pilot without anything but deep respect for his expert knowledge on the subject of getting planes in and out of Heathrow.

His ideas for lengthened multiuse runways are bold, untested but attractive. But what I find really interesting about the Hub bid is the ideas he puts forward to cut noise and boost respite periods simply by redesigning and improving the approach path arrangements and landing gear procedures. My obvious question is can we not do these straight away? 

"For all that there remains a deep scepticism amongst the key local authorities in the region who simply don’t seem to believe anything the experts put in front of them."

The debate over Heathrow will continue and what I find really fascinating is the role that the Estuary option continues to play when it comes to prompting decisions. It is, in many ways, Heathrow’s key weapon. 

Because, while few resident or politicians around the area want to see Heathrow expand and bring more noise pollution and congestion, the prospect of the hub disappearing all together and heading to the Thames Estuary is a nuclear option no one (beyond perhaps Hillingdon Borough) really wants. 

 

Antony Oliver is the editor of Infrastructure Intelligence

If you would like to contact Antony Oliver about this, or any other story, please email antony.oliver@infrastructure-intelligence.com.