A councillor has said he wants to see ‘meat on the bones’ for ideas around how carbon emissions generated from Heathrow’s expansion plans can be offset locally.

In June, the Government launched a public consultation to assess how the airport’s third runway expansion could happen whilst still managing air quality, noise and climate change.

Through the consultation, businesses and communities can have their say on the third runway plans.

The Royal Borough has long been vocal about its concerns around the expansion.

With Heathrow taking steps forward , the council’s aviation forum delved deeper into how to mitigate its impacts.

At a forum meeting yesterday (Thursday), councillors heard potential ideas for carbon offsetting and nature recovery projects that could happen locally.

James Thorpe, the council’s head of climate change and sustainable development, said there is ‘broad agreement’ – with the council wanting to see emissions reducing faster.

Heathrow has said ‘growth in air travel must go hand in hand with a transition to net zero’, Mr Thorpe added.

The Government’s consultation also sets out that any scheme must align with legal climate change obligations and remain within the air quality limits.

Mr Thorpe said: “There is an acceptance that carbon emissions will increase with the third runway and there will be a negative impact on biodiversity.

“Of course, Heathrow [is] committed to mitigating those, and as an organisation, as a council, we should be ensuring that that mitigation happens locally.”

He said the Royal Borough would like to see funding coming forward from Heathrow to deliver projects that could offset some of these emissions.

Ideas include having solar panels installed across the borough as well as retrofitting homes, schools and community facilities to make them ‘more resilient’.

“Solar panels are one piece of the puzzle and are a very quick and easy way to roll out renewables,” Mr Thorpe said.

“But there is also a huge amount of work that needs to happen on retrofitting homes.”

Making homes more efficient – through insulation or by replacing old gas boilers – would also reduce ‘the burden’ on the NHS – with people living in comfortable, warmer homes, he added.

But Councillor Mark Howard (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham) said: “I think we do need to put some meat on the bones.”

He asked if there is a ‘specific wish list’ with ‘a little bit firmer’ ideas around what projects could happen if the funding comes forward.

Cllr Howard wanted to know if there is a list of schools that could benefit from such works or if there is an estimate for the number of homes that have an EPC rating of E or D in RBWM.

An energy performance certificate (EPC) shows how efficient a home is, and the minimum allowed is currently E.

Mr Thorpe reassured the forum that the council carries out surveys across schools in the borough and the information around homes can be gathered easily.

“If you want to firm these things up, we can do that pretty quickly,” he said.

Cllr Julian Sharpe (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) asked if there is information around ‘what the size of the problem is’.

He said that unless the borough knows how much carbon is going to be emitted from Heathrow’s expansion – and how much needs to be offset – ‘everything seems to be pretty much pie in the sky’.

Chris Joyce, the council’s assistant director of placemaking partnerships and sustainability, said there was a previous public consultation on the expansion with carbon assessments carried out.

He added: “In the autumn, we’ll get a consultation so that might provide some more new information around carbon emissions as well.”