THE Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, was set up by the Government to examine what needed to be done to maintain the UK’s status as Europe’s most important aviation hub.

It concluded there was a need to build one new runway in the South East by 2030 and created a shortlist of three – two of which involve expanding Heathrow and one which would envisage the building of a new runway at Gatwick.

The Commission has, over the past six months, carried out a significant amount of work to analyse the economic, social, business and environmental impacts of each proposal.

It recently published the results of this analysis for public consultation.

An important part of this process is to hear from those people likely to be impacted, and we would like to encourage people to respond.

The consultation runs until February 3 and information on how to respond, can be accessed on our website: www.gov.uk/airports-commission

To hear views at first hand, the Commission has set up a public discussion session on December 3 at the Park Inn Hotel, Bath Road.

This will enable it to hear views from local communities and their elected representatives.

This session has proved to be very popular and a full transcript will be published on the Commission’s website, so those unable to attend are able to read what was said.

In addition, the team supporting the Commission will be available to provide advice on responding to the consultation at the same venue from 6-8pm.

The Commission would encourage people to respond and looks forward to taking their views on board as it enters the final phase of its work to identify the best overall proposal.

PHILIP GRAHAM

Head of Secretariat

Airports Commission