The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited attendees to introduce themselves. It was explained that proceedings were being audio recorded.

Cllr Lenton informed the Forum that a regular attendee, Jamie Jamieson, had passed away on December 25^th. His funeral was held on February 12^th. Cllr Lenton stated his regret at his passing and asked for gratitude for the help that he gave the Forum to be formally noted. Cllr Beer stated that Mr Jamieson had been a founding member of the Aviation Forum and had provided members with a great deal of expertise on operations at Heathrow Airport from his time working as a customs officer there. Cllr Beer also expressed his regret at Mr Jamieson’s passing.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence. Cllr Beer stated he had previously submitted apologies as he believed he would be attending a different meeting. However he had been informed he would not be able to attend so was rescinding his advance apologies for the Forum.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 30 November 2017.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on November 30^th 2017 were unanimously agreed as an accurate record.

To consider any matters arising.

There were no matters arising to report.

To receive a verbal update from Chris Nash on the current Heathrow consultation.

The Community Protection Principal introduced the item and explained to the Forum that the consultation had been launched by Heathrow, with an end date of March 28^th. Members were reminded that this consultation was separate from the NPS one, which closed on December 19^th. The Royal Borough had responded to this consultation as part of the Four Borough coalition and as a separate entity; however to date no response had been received.

The Forum was told that the consultation would form part of the informal pre-Development Consent Order stage, which would feed in to Heathrow’s formal DCO application – effectively the planning application for the proposed third runway. This would be after the NPS, to be discussed by Parliament in late spring or early summer.

The Community Protection Principal informed the Forum that a group of Council Members had received a presentation on the proposals from Heathrow on January 29^th. It was felt that this presentation lacked information regarding a number of items including the impact on housing, number of jobs, congestion, pollution and the Council’s Borough Local Plan. The Forum was told that a document which had been released by Heathrow as part of the consultation claimed that the number of local jobs to be created by the proposed third runway was anything between 40-80,000. The document also omitted information on the following:

·         reference to flights landing between 11pm-7am, and the precise cut-off point

·         the economic impact on the need to flatten the Grundon waste incinerator, BT data hub and the Immigration Centre

·         alignment work on the Rivers Colne, Colnbrook and Wraysbury, and the associated additional local individual flood risk assessments

·         whether the cap on 42,000 car parking spaces would be maintained

·         Air Quality Management issues associated with junction 13 of the M25 at Wraysbury, following work to reposition the motorway through a tunnel at junction 14

·         How the 50 per cent modal share of airport users arriving via public transport would be achieved.

The Forum was told that a Heathrow Strategic Planning Group, which had a remit of working with local authorities regarding impact on infrastructure and Local Plans, had been set up. The Royal Borough was an observer to this group, as part of the Four Boroughs coalition. The Community Protection Principal informed members that full membership of this group required the signature of a Non Disclosure Agreement, which had led to concerns over transparency being raised. An update on this matter would be provided at the next Forum.

In terms of construction work in the Royal Borough, the Forum was told that it had been proposed to build borrow pits, to help with gravel extraction, on Ham Island. However it was unclear how this would be achieved without removing the Thames Water facility and housing on Ham Island.

Members were told that the consultation document claimed that expansion of Heathrow would see an improvement in noise prevention measures; however the Community Protection Principal stated that this could not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

To receive an update regarding key developments from Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group (SASIG), Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC) and Local Authority Aircraft Noise Council (LAANC).

SASIG

The Chairman informed the Forum that the AGM would be taking place on February 16^th and that he would be attending.

HACC

Members were informed that the group had been rebranded as the Heathrow Community Engagement Board. Cllr Beer informed members that this was to enable a greater amount of community participation, which had been identified as a weakness. It was still to be decided which groups would be represented and a chairman had still to be appointed, although it was a statutory requirement for them to be independent. Cllr Hilton stated that the number of groups holding Heathrow to account had dwindled. He asked if the Engagement Board’s terms of reference could be brought to the next Forum for comments to be made.

LAANC

Cllr Beer stated that the last meeting had been disappointing as a number of members were unable to attend due to illness. It was not known if the group was quorate as the administrator was one of the people who was unavailable. A representative from Elmbridge District Council had recently joined LAANC, which suffered from some noise pollution but residents were generally felt to be in favour of Heathrow expansion.

The Chairman opened up the Forum for any other items of business. Cllr Hilton said there had been discussions about climb routes out of Heathrow and whether it was better for aircraft to climb as quickly as possible. Currently aircraft took off at a four degree angle; a trial for a five degree angle had been announced, which Cllr Hilton stated would make no difference.

Cllr Beer introduced members to the No Third Runway Coalition group, which was comprised of community representatives – many of whom had expertise in the field of aviation. Some members had spoken at Transport Select Committee meetings and had had good responses to their presentations. A lot of promotional work to advertise the group was being carried out. Cllr Beer encouraged members to seek out what the group was doing.

1 May 2018

The date of the next meeting was noted.