Justine Greening Criticises Ministers On Noise & Pollution

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'Risk assessment on noise and air quality left out of Heathrow consultation'

Justine Greening MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields has criticised Ministers for not making residents aware of the Department for Transport’s assessment that the expansion of Heathrow posed a “high” risk of increasing noise and air pollution locally.

 

The assessment was obtained by Ms Greening though a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Transport.  Alongside an assessment of a range of risk factors, the “Risk Register” shows a “high” risk that achieving air quality targets will be too costly and impractical, and that EU limits for Nitrogen Dioxide in 2010 will be exceeded around Heathrow.  This assessment was omitted from the Public Consultation Document issued in November 2007, in which 70,000 residents across London took part.  The document also showed that the environmental modelling had not been fully completed when Ministers took the decision to progress with the public consultation.

The same document, finalised in October 2007, shows Ministers assessed as “low” risk Terminal 5’s potential to cause reputation damage to BAA.  The subsequent implementation of Terminal 5 was a complete disaster.

Miss Greening said: “Ministers have left the most vital piece of information out of the consultation document.  They are now forced to admit that there are high risks to our local noise and air quality, yet they chose to keep that assessment private.  How can they know these problems were high risk and yet keep it from the very communities who will be affected.  On Heathrow expansion, Ministers have truly lost all integrity on being open with the public they are there to serve”.

 

September 26, 2008