Thursday 5 January 2017

Heathrow airport expansion – Nothing new

The current plans to add a third runway at Heathrow Airport on land north of the A4 in the village of Harmondsworth are nothing new. The original plans for the airport, drawn up during the war in 1944 showed a secondary runway layout obliterating the hamlet of Sipson.

[1]

At that time Heathrow was a requisitioned wartime airfield expected to return to farmland after the war, but its runways were being expanded and strengthened with concrete in order to cope with the heavy transport planes arriving with the D-Day invasion force. The runways were to be built in two phases. Phase 1 was the standard RAF triangular layout which was built south of the A4 – The Great Bath Road.

The requisitioning of the farms and orchards of Heathrow under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 allowed for no consultations, appeals or protests to take place. The farmers had to leave their land and their farmsteads, some of which were listed buildings, within weeks of receiving the official notice. They were not given any help in finding alternative accommodation and they were not allowed to take photographs of their former homes in case they fell into enemy hands. They did not receive compensation until well after the war and then at pre-war prices. Even then the landowners only received compensation for the value of their property and not for the value of the growing crops.[2]

After the war (and therefore after the repeal of the Emergency Powers Act), when the government decided to build Phase 2 of the airport, there were protests and demonstrations which led to the abandonment of the expansion plans in 1952. The villagers of Harmondsworth thought their future was secured, but they have been fighting successive expansion plans ever since.

[3]

The current plan is not the same as the post-war proposal. Instead of obliterating Sipson and some of Harmondsworth village the new runway will remove most of the medieval village of Harmondsworth, but stop short of demolishing the village centre and the historic Great Barn. The hamlet of Longford, with its seven listed buildings, will disappear and Sipson will be sliced in half. The noise pollution will make it impossible to live anywhere in the Parish of Harmondsworth. Visitors will still be welcome in the remains of the village especially its biggest attraction, The Great Barn. It is hoped that the proximity to the runway will not damage the Barn's fabric or historic significance. (see http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/harmondsworth-barn/