Life isn’t easy in Harmondsworth, a village on the outskirts of West Drayton, in the London Borough of Hillingdon. As if being next door to the busiest airport in the country isn’t enough, it’s also right by the junction where the M25 meets the M4.
Locals are constantly under the siege of noise and air pollution, coming from both the planes landing and departing at Heathrow Airport, and the endless stream of cars constantly streaming up and down the motorway.
If it wasn’t for two immigration detention centres located in the village for migrants attempting to enter the UK illegally, people might not even realise that Harmondsworth exists. Saying that, if plans to expand Heathrow ever come into fruition, Harmondsworth could possibly be wiped off the map for good.
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In 2016, the airport was given permission from the government to apply for an expansion that could see half the village demolished to make way for a new runway, with the remainder of the village being left within metres of the airport perimeter.
(Image: BBC Wire)
An expansion of the airport would also destroy over 1,200 years of history in the village, which traces its name back to the year 780 AD when King Offa granted the land to his servant Aeldred. Already much of that history was lost when the hamlets of Heathrow and Perry Oaks were razed in the 1930s and 40s to clear the way for the airport.
Buildings at risk include the historic parish church of St Mary, which dates back to the 12th century, as well as the Grade I-listed Great Barn, the biggest barn in the United Kingdom. Businesses, schools and homes are also at risk of being lost forever if the airport expansion plans go ahead, including the local watering hole, the Five Bells pub.
Speaking to The Independent in 2015, one local person said: “The new boundary line is on my back garden perimeter fence, which I’m not happy about. How can we possibly live with the noise and pollution? Everything beyond my garden will go.
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“I’ve got a successful carpet business here in the village. I’m going to lose it when most of the village is decimated. There’ll be nobody here to use the pub, the shops, the church – it will be a ghost town.”
Another local person said: “I’ve lived there for 45 years and I’ve been campaigning against the plans for decades. It’s a medieval village and I can’t believe they just want to knock it down. Elderly people are very worried, they’ve lived here all their lives. Where will they go?”
The government confirmed its decision to allow Heathrow to apply for its expansion in 2016, despite former prime minister David Cameron’s promise to prevent the construction of the third runway. The decision left many in Harmondsworth feeling betrayed.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
“We received a promise. We all made life choices based on that, which we believed,” one person told The Guardian . “Some people decided to lay their loved ones to rest here because of it. I invested in my home. I thought we were safe and we had a reasonable expectation that we were.”
But plans for the third runway were hampered when the government announced its new carbon emission reduction targets. Heathrow, being the biggest single source of carbon emissions in the UK, may now have to consolidate what it has as other airports deemed unnecessary in the UK face closure. One local campaigner said the third runway plans were ‘dead’.
Paul McGuinness, chair of the No 3rd Runway Coalition, told Berkshire Live : “Heathrow expansion is dead. It is simply not compatible with the UK government’s commitment to do our part in protecting the climate. With aviation now having to live within carbon emissions limits, and the government’s position being that there can be no net expansion of UK aviation, the expansion of activity at one airport will need to be offset by the restriction of activity at another.
“So, supporters of Heathrow expansion will need to identify which regional airports in other parts of the UK they would like to see restricted – or closed – to allow for a greater concentration of the UK’s aviation at Heathrow, in the already economically advantaged south-east.
“But I don’t think it’s likely that anyone, other than Heathrow’s foreign-based shareholders, will be foolish enough to advocate for a relegation of economic opportunity in the regions, and an abandonment of the government’s levelling-up agenda.”
With this momentum behind them, Harmondsworth residents are now campaigning to have Heathrow reduce the number of flights going in and out of the airport during the night, as the noise of planes flying above their homes interrupts their sleep.
Under the current quota which has been extended by a year to last till 2025, Heathrow is allowed to operate 16 flights between 4:30am and 6am. But residents Andrew and Jane, who have lived in Harmondsworth since 1978, are calling for a reduction.
(Image: Andrew and Jane Melville)
Andrew said: “It’s just ridiculous what’s going on, as residents we’re like mushrooms, we’re kept in the dark and fed s***. All the government does is listen to the aviation industry. I would have liked them not to kick the can down the road on this consultation period, hiding behind the pandemic and all of this.
“They’ve come up with this stuff, in their summary, about the fairness approach, but for who? It’s certainly not for our community suffering sleepless nights.”
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