Slough residents must be ‘compensated’ if plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport go ahead, council leader Dexter Smith has said.
Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday, January 29 that the government would back revived plans for the new runway at the airport just outside Slough.
Slough Borough Council leader Mr Smith said the council would push for a rail link to Heathrow and for compensation for Colnbrook, which is near the airport.
He said: “If Heathrow expansion goes ahead, this council will press to ensure that there will be sufficient mitigation from the resultant environmental impacts.
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“While this is good news for Heathrow Airport, the town's largest employer, the council will want to ensure that we get a western rail connection to Heathrow with a seven minute journey time from central Slough to Terminal 5, and also that the Colnbrook community is compensated for giving up most of the land for a new runway, including less flights overhead using the present northern runway.”
Councillor Smith, who represents Colnbrook and Poyle, has previously criticised earlier Heathrow expansion plans.
In 2018 he warned that a proposed expansion risked ‘severing’ road and transport links and would have forced the nearby Pippins primary school in Colnbrook to move.
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