Green spaces Heathrow: A £105m investment

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LHRGer
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Images unveiled today show how the communities around Heathrow could benefit from a £105m investment in green spaces if the airport is allowed to expand.

Images unveiled today show how the communities around Heathrow could benefit from a £105m investment in green spaces if the airport is allowed to expand.

When completed, parkland around the airport would be approximately four times the size of London’s Hyde Park.

The investment is included in the airport’s expansion plans and would create new and enhanced public parkland, as well as wildlife habitats, in west London. This would give local communities more outdoor recreational opportunities, boost biodiversity and improve the look and feel of the area.

The new images released today highlight the improvements, including the potential transformations within the southern part of the Colne Valley Regional Park. Heathrow will work with interested parties to create new wet meadows for flood protection, boosting biodiversity, pastures for grazing animals, bridleways, a cross country course, natural ponds, sports facilities, formal gardens, allotments and even a mountain bike trail for the public to enjoy.

Heathrow is collaborating with the Colne Valley Regional Park Community Interest Company (CIC) on developing this vision if the airport is chosen to expand. The green spaces redevelopment plans would be subject to public consultation as part of a rigorous planning process.

New green areas to the East, North and South of the airport would also be created. Heathrow would work with the Friends of the River Crane to improve the quality of the habitat for watercourses to the east of the airport and increase their public amenity value.

To the North, there is an opportunity to create wetland areas with public boardwalk access, an improved cycle network connecting with local boroughs. Finally, to the South, potentially new and enhanced green spaces would include new, publicly accessible sports facilities.

Heathrow has been a corporate supporter of the CIC for many years and continues to work with stakeholders across local communities, to improve environmental conditions in the area.

Heathrow Director of Sustainability, Matt Gorman said:

“Heathrow expansion is an opportunity to provide once in a generation improvements to the physical environment for the communities around the airport.

Our new plan means this airport can be world-leading in environmental performance and guarantee that those most impacted by expansion get both the greatest benefits and fair treatment.”

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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