Four councils have urged the Government to abandon plans to expand Heathrow after a Parliamentary report found there was no evidence legal limits on air pollution could be achieved.
Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead councils said the report from the Environmental Audit Committee proved the airport could not be expanded and still meet legal environmental limits.
The councils also said the current consultation on the expansion was 'seriously misleading'.
'Yet again this is more evidence that expanding Heathrow is not feasible,' said Lord True, Leader of Richmond Council.
'The Government should give up now. Heathrow already contributes to illegal pollution levels. And, the Government has no realistic plan to combat this. Expanding Heathrow would not only be damaging to the environment, but it would damage the health of tens of thousands of Londoners.'
The leader of Wandsworth Council, Cllr Ravi Govindia, added: 'This influential cross-party House of Commons committee has reached exactly the same conclusions we have. The Government’s plans for Heathrow will never pass a simple legal test on air quality. The airport already churns out unlawful levels of air pollution, offers woefully inadequate transport capacity and has Europe’s worst noise footprint - and that’s with just two runways. Expansion will make all these issues worse.
'It’s wrong on every level, legally undeliverable and will end in failure after years of wasted effort. Nothing is going to change between now and 2018 to make this scheme any less polluting so ministers should face up to this truth now and abandon their plans for a third runway.'
