In an article for the Huffington Post, taking on the arguments made in the intense lobbying by Heathrow's owners, Caroline Pidgeon writes:
We need a better run Heathrow, not a bigger Heathrow. We need to start making much better use of the surprisingly large spare runway capacity at airports in the South East, especially Stansted. And we need to also recognise that there are plenty of business people living in the Midlands and the North of England who resent being forced to always first fly to Heathrow before they can first start an international flight. The views of passengers very rarely get a mention in the aviation debate.
It really is possible to ensure that the UK retains good international connections while at the same avoiding the loss of at least 750 homes to build a third runway. We can remain competitive with other European airports without having to ensure that even more people are disturbed by noise from Heathrow. In fact it is intolerable that even now 28% of all people disturbed by aircraft noise across European are under the Heathrow flights paths.
And most importantly we do not have to accept illegal levels of air pollution around Heathrow simply to satisfy the financial desires of the owners of Heathrow.