First published on 27/07/18

It's time that the five councils taking up a judicial review against a new runway at Heathrow respected the will of local people and MPs - and stopped wasting council taxpayers money, said Back Heathrow.

Back Heathrow's Executive Director Parmjit Dhanda said: 

"Less than a month ago Parliament gave the green light to Heathrow expansion with a cross-party majority of nearly 300 MPs. Over 100,000 local people support this project, the CBI and the TUC back it too.The Independent Airport's Commission began this process with a clear report stating that the new runway can create 180,000 new jobs, reduce the number of households affected by noise and meet all environmental obligations.

"Yet these councils have failed to engage in this process or accept technological advances in aviation. Instead they have chosen to spend nearly £1 million of taxpayers money over the past decade on campaign groups and expensive lawyers. Its time they respected the views of of local people, businesses, unions and the democratic will of Parliament."

Back Heathrow is a community organisation with over 100,000 supporters in west London and the Thames Valley who back Heathrow expansion. Presently over 76,000 people work on site at Heathrow and expansion is set to create 180,000 new jobs across the UK and 10,000 apprenticeships. Independent polling by Populus states that more people in the 12 constituencies adjacent to Heathrow support expansion than oppose it.