Local MP addresses public meeting in Putney on airport with Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith and Justine Greening at recent meeting. Picture: @nor3coalition

Putney MP Justine Greening has said that the Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign has “a good chance of winning” and has advised Putney residents to make clear their feelings to the airport by returning the consultation forms sent out recently.

Speaking at a public meeting on Thursday 1 March, Ms Greening shared the stage with the MP for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith, who in October 2016 resigned his seat in protest at the government’s approval of a third runway at Heathrow, but later regained it in 2017.

Putney residents braved strong winds and icy chills to make it to the meeting, at which the two MPs discussed the airport’s plans for expansion, and the consultation period which Heathrow are currently holding in the run-up to a vote in parliament expected this summer.

Both MPs spoke impassionedly against the airport’s plans for expansion and stated that they believed the government’s decision could be overruled.

Ms Greening commented: “No one is ever so certain of a trend until the day it stops. We have really gone down into the detail of the plans and they are obviously wrong.”

Mr Goldsmith supported this by saying, “The more you look into these plans, the more they fall apart. There are so many different aspects of this that it just becomes unworkable.”

The consultation forms recently sent out to residents by Heathrow was a particular point of concern for locals who complained that the airport is giving little leeway for response. Paul McGuinness, the chairman of the No 3rd Runway Coalition, said that Heathrow’s consultation of residents is purely a “PR trick”.

He added that the response forms do not give people the option to reject expansion plans, only allowing them to select which one they find more preferable – a choice described by Mr McGuinness a similar to asking “which arm would you rather have chopped off?”

Many residents felt the same way, with some even suggesting a “spoiling” of the response forms. Both Ms Greening and Mr Goldsmith, however, advised residents to return the forms, making their feelings known in the spaces available for further comment.

Tom Ball

March 6, 2018