Heathrow's 961-space car park plan for Colnbrook withdrawn

Heathrow has withdrawn its application to build a new park and ride on the greenbelt of Colnbrook which was intended to insulate its staff from ULEZ and cost of living challenges.

The plans involve the demolition of old golf clubhouse buildings set on a 27,000sqm driving range in Galleymead Road.

The proposal was for 961 parking spaces, for a temporary period of three years (reference P/10423/005).

This was in response to the expanding of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across all London boroughs, including at Heathrow Airport.

This means that employees travelling to the airport would be subject to the new charge if they travel to work with a non-compliant vehicle.

Heathrow argued that this would have a negative impact on Slough employees’ finances in particular. About 5,000 employees affected by the ULEZ expansion – around 43 per cent – reside either within Slough Borough, or within the area around Slough or the adjacent M25 motorway corridor.

Approximately 2,150 employees reside within the area local to Slough. The proposals were to allow Heathrow Airport staff time to transition to ULEZ compliant vehicles or other forms of transport.

The golf buildings, structures and hardstanding were planned to be removed, before then being permanently replaced with a fully landscaped area, which Heathrow had argued would ‘increase the openness of the greenbelt’ and also boost biodiversity.

Four objectors worried about noise pollution and erosion of the greenbelt, as well as possible overspill for when the car park fills up and impact on already overburdened streets.

Galleymead Road showed a predicted noise level increase of 4dB during daytime and 5dB at night, due to the relatively large increase in traffic expected.

Heathrow had made the argument that given the existing road traffic noise, the difference would be ‘negligible’.

Nonetheless, Heathrow withdrew the application, saying it had provided ‘sufficient other mitigations’ including significant public transport enhancements and car share, removing the need for this scheme.