THE chancellor’s backing for a night ban on flights at Heathrow was labelled irregular.

Addressing a public meeting in his Englefield Green constituency on April 4, Philip Hammond supported an eight-hour ban should the third runway go ahead.

But campaigners Residents Against Aircraft Noise (RAAN), who cover Ascot and Bracknell, believe Mr Hammond’s backing is simply for unscheduled departures.

“It would seem irregular for the chancellor to suggest his campaigning for an eight-hour night flight on two counts,” said Murray Barter, chairman of RAAN.

“One, he is the chancellor and second in governmental rank, so presumably he is campaigning to himself? Unless it’s the aviation industry itself that’s in charge of UK aviation policy.

“Secondly, an eight-hour night flight ban has to be precisely this, a complete ban of all arrivals and departures for an agreed eight-hour window, not simply ‘unscheduled’ departures which regularly overshoot their 22.50pm timeslot to well beyond 1am.

“Is this what he is truly advocating? And if he is, he should ensure that it happens, with or without a third runway.”

John Stewart, the chair of HACAN, the campaign body which gives a voice to residents under the Heathrow flight paths, said: “It is significant that a politician as senior as Philip Hammond has called for an eight hour night flight ban. "It will increase the pressure on both his own government and Heathrow to look again at the six and a half ban they are offering if a third runway goes ahead.”

At present there are 16 scheduled flights permitted at Heathrow between 11.30pm and 6am. They are all arrivals with the first one landing at 4.30am. The Airports Commission, which originally recommended a third runway, argued that there would be spare capacity on a new runway to allow these flights to land after 6am.

The hour between 6am and 7am is a much busier one with over 60 flights using the airport. HACAN admits that it would be more difficult to move all the planes that use it during that hour beyond seven o’clock but argues that, if the extra capacity provided by the third runway allowed at least some of them to rescheduled, it would open the way for people to just get flights before 7am one week in three as only one of the runways would be in use between 6am and 7am.

Mr Stewart added: “HACAN remains opposed to a third runway but, if it comes about, the extra capacity it provides should be used so that an eight hour night becomes the norm for all communities.”