LONDON: The department for Transport (Dft) is working with Heathrow’s owners to “rig” the way air quality is monitored at Heathrow in order to pave the way for a third runway, the Evening Standard revealed.
Documents show that officials discussed moving the monitors at the airport away from the runways so they could record lower pollution readings - a highly controversial proposal as the expansion of the airport is dependent on its meeting strict environmental criteria.
The Standard revealed last month that officials at the department were holding three meetings a month with BAA to shape the forthcoming consultation on expansion.
At a meeting on March 28 this year, they talked about moving the “source” of the pollution - aircraft and road traffic - away from “the receptor” or monitoring equipment.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the DfT’s Michael Jackson says this would be “the most effective” way of “mitigating” the problem of increased nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels.
In its aviation White Paper in 2003, the government supported a third runway to come into use between 2015 and 2020, provided it met EU environmental emissions criteria, including one on NO2.
If given the go-ahead it would allow 500 more flights a day over London and double the number of airport passengers to 115mn.
But the documents reveal how the DfT and BAA are looking to ensure the expanded airport meets its environmental targets.
At another meeting, it was suggested they would only use the least polluting cars as the basis for the figures used in the consultation. “This would mean a significant reduction in their NO2 emissions (around 23%),” say the minutes, dated April 4 this year.
One of the justifications for expanding Heathrow is that the new Boeing 747 and the A380 Airbus would be cleaner but documents show they will have “10% more take-off roll NO2”.
Critics say the consultation is a sham. The process has already been tainted by the disclosure that BAA has received environmental data denied to opposition MPs. – London Evening Standard