Ealing Southall MP - Virendra Sharma, local councillors, trade unionists and over 100 local residents joined together to call for the creation of thousands more jobs through sustainable growth at Heathrow Airport at a meeting in Southall last Friday.

Virendra Sharma MP said: “It was a pleasure to see so many local people, I know the importance of Heathrow as a local employer. So I will continue to work with trade unions and others to press for more unionised jobs and sustainable growth at the airport.”

Mr Sharma MP reminded the audience that Heathrow has provided jobs for families across many generations in Ealing, but that its future growth was dependent on embracing greener aviation. The event held at a restaurant in the heart of Southall, was organised by campaign group Back Heathrow, which represents over 100,000 local residents.

Parmjit Dhanda, Executive Director of Back Heathrow said: “It is great to see such strong local support for growth at the UK’s only hub airport. Local people know that if we fail to seize the opportunity to grow at Heathrow then Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam will take local jobs. By doing expansion right, Heathrow can lead the world in decarbonisation of aviation.”

Sam Berry, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Heathrow took the opportunity to speak about the potential impact of ULEZ on over 10,000 of Heathrow’s staff who would be affected by the Mayor of London’s scheme. Whilst supporting the scheme in principle, he said the airport had concerns about the impact it could have on many Heathrow workers.

Notes to editors:

• The current arrangements for travelling to Heathrow by private car can be found here.
• Picture 1: Executive Director of Back Heathrow Parmjit Dhanda (Left) with Ealing Southall MP Virendra Sharma (Right)
• Picture 2: Parmjit and Virendra with Back Heathrow supporters