The planes have returned to East Sheen after a short respite. That means noise and pollution.

Roger Mason from the Kew Society has written a report noting this and discussing just how much worse it could get with a third runway.

A third runway would result in 260,000 more flights p.a. than currently, which equates to approximately 700 additional flights per day.

It seems inevitable that the area around Heathrow will experience increased aircraft noise despite advances in the design of engines and air frames which may enable new planes to fly less noisily than in the past.

Aircraft noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and, importantly, is also associated with cognitive disturbance in children and cardiovascular disease. Aircraft noise is already a big issue for residents under flight paths in West London⁷¹ and could become worse for many in the future. Not only will they be exposed to many more flights with a third runway, but flight path revisions are also planned which will see the traditional arrival flight paths using radio beacons replaced by performance-based navigation (PBN), a form of GPS, and changes in air space use.

One analysis reports that “1.6m people living under sections of the proposed flight paths closest to the airport are almost certain to be overflown and to experience noise levels at or above 65 decibels.They could be overflown by up to 47 flights an hour as flight paths become more concentrated closer to the runway, experiencing near constant noise disturbance”.  For comparison, local authorities usually impose restrictions from construction site noise in residential areas during daytime hours, typically limiting it to 55-65 dB (Google AI overview). 

https://www.kewsociety.org/environment/heathrows-third-runway-whats-at-stake-for-kew/ and one might add much of West London.

See also the House of Commons Debate promoted by Sarah Olney MP on 14 November 2024 at

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-11-14/debates/3E8C2EE4-3B78-4A79-B6BF-84E0D2D21180/AircraftNoiseLocalCommunities

and

https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/05/17/heathrow-third-runway-noise-pollution-london/#:~:text=The%20Heathrow%20documents%20explicitly%20detail%20how%20these,become%20more%20concentrated%20closer%20to%20the%20runway.

Roger’s report also looks at pollution and traffic problems.