Rachel Reeves’ Heathrow expansion plans slammed amid ‘noise sewers’ fears

While villagers in the direct shadow of the planned Heathrow expansion have already over its “devastating” impact, fears of an even wider impact are growing among the UK’s rural communities.

announced Government support for the long-delayed third runway this week, fuelling backlash from ’s neighbouring medieval villages of Harmondsworth and Longford.

As well as posing a potentially existential threat to residents of the small hamlets, the ambitious piece of infrastructure could have far-reaching consequences for yet more of the English countryside, an environmental pressure group believes.

Parts of Hampshire and Surrey could be turned into “noise sewers” by new flight paths created to support the third runway, the Farnborough Noise Group has suggested, warning of a detrimental health impact on locals.

“Rural areas like the South Downs and Surrey Hills are important for nature and our wellbeing,” a spokesperson for the group, which has campaigned against plans to increase flight numbers at Farnborough Airport in northeastern Hampshire, said.

“The government plans to put the new flightpaths to support airport expansion specifically over these areas,” they told the .

“We should be protecting the peace and quiet of our rural areas, not turning them into ‘noise sewers’. We have seen how businesses have used our rivers, we shouldn’t be doing the same to our skies.”

Plans to also expand London’s other major airport at Gatwick could exacerbate the problem, they added, with both Surrey and Hampshire – which sit at an intersection point between the two facilities – “quadrupuling” the noise pollution, with “the same areas impacted by aircraft landing … as taking off”.

Details of new flight paths created in conjunction with the third Heathrow terminal have not been confirmed but the expansion could see the airport’s current annual capacity for around 475,000 flights rise to 740,000 – leading to a major increase in overheard noise for communities in southern and central England.

As well as from London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the Chancellor has been taken to task for appearing to prioritise the £14billion-odd development over the fears of people whose lives it might irrevocably change.

“Has the department provided [Ms Reeves] with an assessment of where the 8,000 to 10,000 people in my constituency who [will] have their houses demolished or rendered unlivable will live if the Heathrow expansion goes ahead?” ex-Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, asked this week.

Addressing Transport Minister Mike Kane, he added: “Has he also mapped out for the Chancellor the flight paths of the additional quarter-of-a-million planes flying over the homes of people in those marginal seats of Uxbridge and Watford and Harrow and elsewhere?”

Ms Reeves, who has claimed that all of ’s cabinet is “united” behind the plan, has also suggested that it could be built within a decade, with spades in the ground before the end of this parliament.

The Chancellor did her best to turn the tide on the economic stagnation that has shackled Labour since its election in July in a speech on Wednesday, declaring her intention to “turn things around” and “change our country’s future for the better”.

Pushing through the Heathrow expansion, which was first proposed by Gordon Brown’s Labour government, would signal to the rest of the world that the UK is committed to growth instead of decline, she suggested.

“By backing a third runway at Heathrow, we can make Britain the world’s best-connected place to do business,” Ms Reeves said.

“That is what it takes to make decisions in the national interest and that is what I mean by going further and faster to kick-start economic growth.”

Express.co.uk has contacted the Treasury for comment.