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Heathrow

The hon. and learned Gentleman is exactly right. He will know that the consultation document says that if we go to mixed mode, 20,000 schools—a phenomenal number that I will need to double check, but the Minister will undoubtedly do so—will be impacted by the greater noise to the extent that they will require compensation and insulation. The impact would be huge and devastating. I am afraid that there is a divide-and-conquer strategy behind the policy. The Minister could come to my constituents and say, ““Look, if we have a third runway, you can get rid of runway alternation.”” That strategy would be an attempt to divide and conquer. We have hung together because of the issues of climate change, quality of life and London. My constituents are determined, and they would not appreciate the subterfuge that I think will be presented to us. I shall move on because I am trying to get through my speech quickly. I will make a couple of comments on the business issues that were raised, because business is my background. When I first saw the consultation document and asked for the addendums with the technical details, I thought I would see a proper analysis of business in London and what it needed in the way of transport and aviation services. It was not there. We have a generalised analysis that says, ““If fares go down, leisure traffic goes up, and we assume that fares will go down, therefore leisure traffic will go up.”” That is part of the mispricing process we talked about. The analysis said that business travel was not much attached to anything—except perhaps slightly to GDP. Essentially, it said that we do not really know why business travellers travel. From talking to businesses, I find that nearly everyone is determined to reduce their carbon footprint, and they are all looking at alternatives to travel. When I ask them the simple question, ““Do you want a bigger Heathrow?””, they say, ““Yes, and more destinations would be nice,”” , but when I ask them what they specifically want, I find that they want to get to certain major destinations across the globe with reasonable frequency, and nothing more. Heathrow provides for that, which is exactly the point I have been making. That is why the number of destinations have come down. This is not a macho situation where people say, ““I move to the place with the most destinations””. Businesses want a service that works for them, which is all that they need. They need a reasonable number of services to the main destinations around the globe. They already have that, and growth is not required. My final point relates to my constituency. Mention was made of Airtrack, and I attempted to intervene on the Secretary of State on that issue. Airtrack is a wonderful notion, and it is tied into Heathrow, not just with regard to PR matters but as a way of showing people that air quality will be managed by new public transport. BAA Airtrack sounds wonderful. People can get on a train at Heathrow, go through Staines, Twickenham and Richmond and end up at Waterloo. Who could complain about that? But in developing this proposal, BAA and the Government forgot my constituency. I only heard that this project was to be made real some days ago, through an accidental comment made by a reporter. I have met BAA since, and it understands my concerns. It is finally going to hold an exhibition on this project in my constituency as part of their consultation. About a third of Richmond Park is bounded to the north and east by the river and to the south by a railway line. There are four level crossings on that railway line and, according to Network Rail, those level crossings will be down for 45 minutes out of the hour at peak time because of the Airtrack project. About a third of my constituency will become, in effect, landlocked. People will not be able to get out to work, school or the shops. We will not be able to get police, ambulances or fire services in—we are landlocked. The consequences will spill on to the major arteries—the A316, the A205 and the south circular—making them impossible. Nobody considered the matter—it did not even occur to anybody. No one picked up the phone to Richmond council when developing the proposal. It is phenomenally daft. It happened because, when they hear the word ““Heathrow””, BAA and the Government think about the airport and the passengers and forget the surrounding communities. I ask the Minister to help me. I have attempted to arrange a meeting with the new Minister responsible for rail. BAA had the courtesy to send its chief executive to participate in the conversation, and I hope I can get that commitment from the Minister in his winding-up speech. We have demonstrated the lack of concern for people who live near the airport. The airport is where it is because neighbouring residents are willing to allow it to be there. However, if we try everyone’s patience too far, we will begin to threaten Heathrow’s continued existence. That would be devastating.