By Rob Gray

Back Heathrow is delighted to announce that we now have 100,000 supporters living in the communities surrounding the UK’s only hub airport. We must push home this incredible advantage, which proves that Heathrow is the only politically deliverable option for airport expansion in the south east. A map showing the location of Back Heathrow’s supporters can be found here.

It has been less than two years since Back Heathrow was launched to provide a voice for local people who support growth at Heathrow and the thousands of jobs that the airport provides. Until Back Heathrow was founded, local people who support and rely on Heathrow were left out of the discussion, allowing a vocal minority opposing expansion to do all the talking.

Not anymore.

From a starting point of just a few hundred supporters, Back Heathrow has grown into a movement of thousands. We were delighted when 20,000 local people signed up to the campaign, followed soon after by reaching the impressive target of 50,000. By the start of 2015, our campaign numbers had soared to more than 80,000 supporters, and the race to sign up 100,000 people was on.

Now, just a few short months later, we have reached this important and significant milestone. There are now:

• 100,000 reasons why a bigger and better Heathrow will deliver for local people.
• 100,000 reasons why Gatwick cannot compete with Heathrow: their neighbours do not want expansion.
• 100,000 reasons why the Airports Commission must listen to local people near Heathrow.

But, the story is not over yet. Back Heathrow has really taken off, and we’ve reached the cruising altitude of 100,000 supporters. However there is still much work to be done before we can help land an extra runway. Back Heathrow will continue to make the case for a quieter, cleaner and bigger Heathrow and to fight for the best deal for our local communities. If you would like to be part of this, why not sign up here?