Campaigners for a third runway at Heathrow have been found to have misled the public over its impact on noise and pollution.

Future Heathrow has been ordered by the advertising watchdog not to repeat an ad which claimed "a third runway won't make Heathrow any noisier or dirtier". The lobby group was also found to have made a second misleading statement in the advert when it claimed another runway "won't get the green light unless local air quality meets stringent EU standards on concentrations of nitrogen dioxide".

The findings will be seized on by opponents of a bigger Heathrow who have accused the Government of colluding with airport operator BAA over the expansion plans. They will also raise fresh questions over the impartiality of the Government's public consultation ahead of its decision this year to back a third runway.

BAA, which responded on behalf of Future Heathrow to the complaint by an MP to the Advertising Standards Authority, argued that the advert was justified given reassurances and safeguards on noise and pollution being demanded by the Government. But the ASA rejected these claims and found the ad had breached its code on truthfulness, substantiation and environmental claims.

Read the full article in The Evening Standard.


The government hid behind figures provided by BAA when it put forward its expansion proposals. Now BAA is hiding behind the government's "safeguards" to say that a bigger Heathrow won't be any noisier or dirtier.

Nobody believes either of them now.