Earlier this year at a meeting in Westminster I asked Howard Davies, chair of the airports commission, if he would make a visit to Hounslow and see first-hand the impacts – positive and negative – of Heathrow on the area and the people who live there. Labour has welcomed the work of the Davies commission, having early on called on the government to set up an independent airports commission to look at the need for additional airport capacity. We need consensus on how expansion should be delivered within our emission reduction goals and how additional capacity could minimise the noise and pollution impacts on local communities

The fact-finding and observation visit took place on Tuesday 17 June. The day began at 6.30am with a visit to homes near Heathrow to observe and hear the noise created by early-morning flights, and then the day continued with a visit to Alpha LSG, a major supplier of passenger meals, a presentation at a local school about the impacts of flight noise on children and their development, and finally back to the civic centre in Hounslow for a question and answer session with the commission and various stakeholders.

The airports commission has been tasked with examining the issues surrounding airports in the United Kingdom, but the reality is that its central focus will be on the future of air travel in the south-east of England and London in particular, with the key question being where an additional runway, deemed essential by 2030, will be built. This is an emotive and divisive issue, for, although airports bring economic advantages to an area such as employment, trade, and investment, the drawbacks in terms of pollution, effects on education, health and living standards are also clear.

During the visit to Beavers Community Primary School, the headteacher, who was herself born and raised in the area, laid out with clarity and passion the extent of the impacts on the children in her care. In the first instance the noise of early-morning and late-evening aircraft, taking off and landing interferes with the ability of her young students to sleep at night. Sleep is absolutely crucial to children’s development and a lack of sleep will have greatly detrimental effects on their ability to concentrate, interact and learn. The impact is greater where the quality of housing is poor.

Additional to this, the noise of the aircraft overhead directly disrupts lessons and makes it difficult for teachers to retain the attention of the young students. Standing in the playground watching the children clasp their ears as flights came in to land directly overhead, the commission were under no illusion about the seriousness of the difficulties and challenges students and teachers in this area face.

There are also secondary impacts from the noise: in order to reduce the amount of disruptions, teachers must keep the doors and windows shut and sealed, leading to hot and stuffy classrooms, not conducive to learning or even staying awake for young students.

And finally beyond the noise issue are the impacts of pollution and declining air quality. Teachers spoke about how students playing outside would return with visible marks from airline fuel residue upon their clothing. The airport also leads to an enormous degree of road traffic and congestion which compounds the health risks to all residents but particularly growing children.

With this knowledge about the real impacts of airports on people’s lives, Davies and his team face the unenviable task of making a recommendation of action for the next government. The commission published its interim report in December; it was a thorough and well-considered document that laid out with no equivocation the enormous challenges Britain and London face in trying to maintain an appropriate level of airport capacity in the 21^st century.

A criticism of Heathrow is that that it has historically not taken seriously enough the impact of noise and pollution on children, schools and learning. With other primary schools on the flight path within 1-2 miles of the runways, it is right that, regardless of any decision on a new runway, that impact-mitigation is at the level that local communities deserve. I have not had a single constituent seek the closure of Heathrow. Thousands of local households depend on Heathrow for their household income. Indeed, over 110,000 jobs in the area are reliant on the airport. Hounslow has always been clear on this – we need the economic benefits but also a fair deal on community impact. Good aviation links are vital to Britain’s competitiveness and future economic success.

The debates and analysis of the shortlist of options continue. The final report and recommendations from Davies and the commission will be due in the summer of 2015, when Labour will be scrutinising the commission’s recommendations and the costs and benefits of the commission’s final proposals. As we consider these issues and the big economic decisions for the country, we will need to do so keeping in mind the students of Beavers Community School, and all those just like them.

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Seema Malhotra is member of parliament for Feltham and Heston. She tweets @SeemaMalhotra1

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Photo: Wendell