Heathrow Area Transport Forum

Heathrow Area Transport Forum

Working together for better surface transport access to Heathrow

HATF Board Meeting 22nd April 2020 Minutes

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Filed under: 2020 HATF Main Board, Meetings.

Heathrow Area Transport Forum (HATF) Board Meeting 7

Present:

  • Val Shawcross CBE – HATF (Chair)
  • Tony Caccavone – Heathrow Airport Limited (Surface Access Director)
  • Kathy Slack – Enterprise M3 (Chief Executive)
  • Mark Frost – Heathrow Strategic Planning Group (Head of Transport and Environmental Strategy, LB Hounslow)
  • Kris Beuret – Heathrow Community Engagement Board (Non-Executive Director, Transport & Environment Group)
  • David Stroud -British International Freight Association (Policy & Compliance Advisor)
  • Anthony Smith – Transport Focus (Chief Executive)
  • Colin Kemp – Transport the South East (Board Member)
  • Shamal Ratnayaka – Transport for London (Aviation Strategy Lead)

Non-members:

  • Damilola Dada – HATF (Secretariat)
  • Andrew Tucker – HATF (Independent Technical Advisor)
  • Joanna Walker – HAL (Head of Surface Access and Commercial Strategy)

Apologies:

  • Stephanie McKay- Heathrow Airport Limited (Head of Surface Access Delivery)
  • Rupert Walker– Network Rail (Strategy and Planning Director (South)
  • David Lutton – London First (Executive Director)
  • Christian Wolmar -London Cycling Campaign (Trustee)
  • Richard Anderson – Airline Consultative Committee (AOC Chair)
  • Graham Vidler – Confederation of Passenger Transport (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Wayne King– Unite (Regional Officer)

Welcome and Introductions

The Chair provided opening remarks and welcomed new guests.

Airport Update

Judicial Review Ruling

  • HAL provided an update on the impact of the Court of Appeal’s judgement regarding the Judicial Review ruling against the Government’s policy on Heathrow expansion.
  • The Court of Appeal dismissed all appeals against the government – including on “noise” and “air quality” – apart from one on climate change.
  • The ruling states that the Secretary of State should have taken into account the Paris Climate Change agreement in designating the NPS. 
  • HAL are seeking permission to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.

Impact of Covid-19

  • HAL outlined to the Board the unprecedented impact the Covid-19 outbreak is having on Heathrow’s business and the measures that Heathrow are undertaking in response.
  • The Board raised concern within the business community on the long-term impact of Covid-19 on the aviation industry.
  • The Board identified that the long-term challenge of encouraging modal shift may become harder if there are long lasting concerns around social isolation which mean car travel becomes more prevalent.
  • TfL confirmed they have also experienced a very significant impact on public transport demand, although they had also noted a significant increase in active travel. Despite the decline in ridership, TfL has experienced challenges around social distancing on services.
  • The impact of the crisis on freight handlers was also identified, both in the volume of freight being handles and the additional safety procedures being put on place to protect handlers.

Key discussion summary points:

  • Readiness for recovery
  • Improved public confidence in public transport

Process for delivering a two-runway strategy

HATF Key Priorities

A summary of the HATF Expansion focused Position Statement was presented to the board. Particular points discussed include:

  • The Board fully endorsed the position paper and considered it a helpful summary of the key issues.
  • The need for any future surface access strategy to be more explicitly linked to environmental objectives, particularly around carbon, greenhouse gas emissions and unintended consequences.
  • The need for a future strategy to explicitly recognise the need and benefits of establishing partnership working across local authorities and delivery agencies recognising the wider benefits an integrated transport policy can bring.
  • Additional considerations to be given to parking proposals presented within the Strategy.

HAL’s two-runway strategy proposals

HAL shared and discussed the ‘HAL 2R Strategy Proposals’. Particular points discussed include:

  • HAL are committed to developing a sustainable strategy that works for passengers, colleagues, airlines, communities, and shareholders.
  • Board members were pleased to see HAL recognise the central importance of early engagement with key stakeholders and ensuring that stakeholder’s views can be fully incorporated in an evolving strategy.
  • The Board recommended that HAL need to go back to some of the 2017 objectives, and review and refresh these in light of experience gained over the last few years. In particular, the board recommended the need to for the objectives to be more explicitly focused on environmental benefits and partnership working.
  • Objectives set need further clarity around commercial considerations, whether the result of budget constraints or due to the CAA regulated approach.
  • The Board were keen to establish a process for developing a partnership approach to ensure that any future objectives are focused not just on the airports transport needs, but also the sub region more generally.
  • The board recognised that there needs to be clear process and structure to this partnership working for the process to have legitimacy.
  • An update was provided on the work of the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group (HSPG) which represents most of the local authorities around Heathrow.

AOB

HAL provided an update on Western Rail.

Date of next meeting: Monday 29th June 2020, 10:00-12:00