THE leader of the Royal Borough has joined other local council chiefs in opposing the Airports Commission's recommendation for a new third runway at Heathrow, echoing residents' concerns. 

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) and the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth councils have collectively released a report, challenging the commission on grounds of environmental, health and community effects. 

The report highlights factors that council leaders feel makes the third runway "undeliverable", including environmental, transport, political and social factors.

Published on Hillingdon council's website, it states that the North-West runway (NWR) scheme would expose more people to sound levels of 55dBLden, an average sound level measurement over a 24-hour period, than its five European competitors combined - Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid and Munich. 

There are currently about 725,000 people exposed to aircraft noise at 55dBLden.

The NWR scheme proposes 260,000 more flights a year which will impact more than 726,000 people and an additional 108 schools, in comparison to 36,000 people and an extra 14 schools who would be affected by a second runway at Gatwick.

It also argues that the commission has "hidden the real impact" of a third runway by not revealing flight paths information in its final report, as well as not including a comparison table summarising noise effects, nor clearly highlighting the number of people newly affected by aircraft noise. 

Council leaders also suggest that a scheduled ban on night flights from 11.30pm to 6am is not long enough, because it only provides six and a half hours of relief from noise rather than eight hours, recommended by the World Health Organisation. 

While the proposed ban means that 16 flights would be shifted from the 4.30am to 6am period, to after 6am, these flights would be accommodated in the following hour, thus "causing further sleep disturbance to thousands of people".  

RBWM leader Cllr David Burbage said: "We are asking MPs to consider carefully whether a scheme that is forecast to deliver a net reduction in direct routes between Heathrow and domestic airports is really in the interest of regional economies and local people.

"The third runway is the wrong choice for London and the South East and would greatly reduce regional connectivity and economic competitiveness. 

"For the millions of people who are neighbours to the airport, this would be very damaging."

The full report is available at: www.hillingdon.gov.uk/heathrow"