Court of Appeal sets date for Councils’ Heathrow appeal

Plans for Heathrow expansion face a fresh legal challenge in the Court of Appeal in October.

The Court of Appeal has allowed four days for the new hearing which will start on Monday 21 October. There will be four appeals which will be heard at the same time.

The boroughs will say that the government made legal errors in the steps leading up to the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) and therefore it should be quashed.

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Lindblom said in his ruling that “the importance of the issues raised in these proceedings is obvious and affords a proper basis for granting leave to appeal. I also accept that the grounds of appeal are properly arguable.’’

The local authorities had warned that expanding Heathrow could bring long term damage to the health of millions of Londoners with large areas of London and the Home Counties affected by noise and air pollution from the north-west runway.

They had argued that the third runway could only be built by demolishing thousands of homes, adding large increases in road traffic and making life noisier and unhealthier for millions of Londoners. The Government had not looked at this properly.

The Court of Appeal will hear how the Secretary of State failed to consult properly on noise – excluding people who may be significantly affected. It was not possible to assess the noise impact for communities based on actual flight paths as these were not known.

The councils will also show how the Secretary of State failed to consider the effect of expansion on local plans.

They will also argue that the Secretary of State did not properly consider the significant adverse impact of Heathrow expansion on protected habitats.

Cllr Simon Dudley, Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, said:

“The Secretary of State’s failure to properly identify the communities likely to be affected by noise is a glaring weakness in his approach to the noise impacts of expansion. The result of this approach was to mask the true potential impacts.

“It means that there are communities which were simply unaware that they might be at risk of increased noise impacts and have therefore been denied the opportunity to express their views.”

The Secretary of State’s decision in favour of Heathrow’s north-west runway proposal was challenged by Hillingdon, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond upon Thames and Windsor and Maidenhead councils. They were joined in the Judicial Review by the Mayor of London and Greenpeace.