At around 3pm most days, Heathrow’s air traffic controllers switch which runway handles landing and which handles takeoff. Nobody under a flight path in Putney needs telling when it happens. It’s the reason a whole half of most days passes without a plane overhead, the closest thing the area gets to quiet.
That switch, and the roughly nine-hour break it buys, is one of the things a government consultation closing at 11:59pm this Tuesday could end.
This is the last weekend to respond, and it takes about five minutes.
For Putney, what’s at stake is straightforward: how many hours a day come with a break from aircraft noise, whether streets and gardens that barely hear a plane today start hearing them regularly, and how loud the flights overhead get before anyone has to pay for insulation. None of that is decided yet. That’s what the next three days are for.
The government is consulting on the rules a third runway at Heathrow would be judged against. Anyone can respond, and you do not have to answer every question.
Takes about five minutes. You pick the points you care about; the tool writes them up against the consultation’s own questions.
Why this isn't a waste of five minutes
It's easy to assume a form filled in over a bank holiday weekend disappears into a drawer somewhere in Whitehall. The department running this consultation has said, on the record, that it doesn't work that way, and there is some evidence that is true, although it is also clear that the government is trying to put its thumb on the scales: all the more reason why a significant public response is important.
Against it: this consultation runs eleven weeks, five shorter than the equivalent exercise in 2017, over the school summer holidays, with Parliament in recess for two-thirds of it. In 2018, the department ran 20 local consultation events so people could turn up and ask questions in person. This time it's running none.
For it: asked directly about that criticism during a webinar earlier this month, the department didn't dispute it. It said instead what it actually weighs, argument and evidence, not the number of ticks in a box. Three well-made points, in its own words, beat fifteen ticked boxes. And whatever comes out of this process still has to pass through Parliament: any amended policy goes to a Commons vote before it has legal effect, which is not nothing either.
There's already a small, concrete example of the department listening. When a resident used the same webinar to ask what an expanded Heathrow would mean specifically for Putney, already among the areas most affected by noise, the department answered the question on the record, in writing, in the pack it published afterwards. Putney's noise was raised, and Putney's noise got a written answer.
What's actually being decided
This isn't a vote on whether the runway gets built. That decision is years away. An application isn't expected until the end of 2027, and even then it doesn't decide anything on its own: the Planning Inspectorate would examine it for around six months, holding public hearings, before recommending a decision to the Secretary of State. A final decision isn't expected before 2029.
It isn't even fully settled which scheme that application would be for. Heathrow Airport Ltd's own proposal is what the government has backed, but a rival promoter, Arora Group, has kept pushing its own "Heathrow West" scheme this month, and one live question in the same webinar suggested Arora's version might not include a third runway at all, only a sixth terminal. The department's answer didn't rule that out.
What's happening now, while all of that is still unresolved, is narrower and in some ways more important: the government is writing the rulebook the eventual scheme, whichever one it turns out to be, will be judged against. The tests it has to pass on noise, air quality, carbon and economic growth. Those tests are what's being consulted on. Once they're fixed, a scheme only has to clear them, not persuade anyone they're the right bar to clear.
The draft also proposes labelling Heathrow expansion "Critical National Growth Infrastructure," which comes with a presumption in favour written into the policy before any scheme is judged against it. And a separate law passed last year removed the legal right residents previously had to be consulted before Heathrow submits its actual planning application. What's on offer instead is an expectation of engagement, not a requirement.
Put together: this consultation is close to the last point where raising a concern changes anything, rather than being weighed against a decision already made.
This is the last weekend. The consultation on the Heathrow rules closes at 11.59pm on 1 September. Build a response in about five minutes ↓
What Putney stands to lose
Right now, aircraft switch runways at 3pm each day, so anyone under a flight path gets a predictable break of around nine hours, roughly half the airport's operating day. The Putney Society, which has read the draft policy closely, says a third runway would cut that respite to about a quarter of the day, citing the government's own noise annex. Officials haven't disputed the figure when asked about it directly.
Where the new noise lands hasn't been decided either. The flight paths for an expanded Heathrow won't be drawn until around 2028, after the rules are already fixed. Areas that get comparatively little aircraft noise today, Southfields, West Hill, Roehampton, Putney Vale, could end up under a regular approach for the first time, and nobody currently responding to this consultation can be told whether they will.
On night flights, the department has confirmed its own position for the first time: a 6.5-hour ban, between 11pm and 7am. The Putney Society is asking for seven hours rising to eight, arguing that six and a half hours isn't enough sleep for most people, and that the seven-hour version wouldn't cost any flights, only move them earlier in the day.
For homes that do end up inside the worst-affected areas, the draft policy sets out what compensation looks like: full acoustic insulation, paid for outright, for anyone inside the loudest noise contour, and up to £3,000 towards insulation for a wider band around it. It's a proposal, not a guarantee, and Putney's noise contour maps for an expanded airport don't exist yet, so nobody can currently be told whether any street here would qualify.
The headline noise test itself is weaker than it sounds, too. The government's proposed limit is that total noise from an expanded Heathrow should be no worse than in 2024. That sounds demanding until you read the small print.
Aircraft are getting quieter regardless of what the government does, so the department's own analysis shows that target would be met "without any effort at all," in the Putney Society's words. Asked at the same webinar about newer noise research putting the cost at around £2 billion a year and affecting 4.65 million people, the department confirmed that figure isn't yet built into its official numbers. It's "working through the process," was the answer.
The economic case has the same shape. The government's own Green Book appraisal, published in June, shows the scheme's net welfare impact at somewhere between minus £23.4 billion and minus £62.5 billion over 60 years, against a GDP gain of a few hundredths of a percentage point by 2056. The department doesn't dispute those numbers, which sit in its own Appraisal Report. It defends the scheme instead on separate GDP modelling and wider benefit claims that don't appear on the same page as the loss.
Build your response
We have put together a tool to make it easy to put together a serious and credible response. Tick the points that concern you, including agreeing with the government if that's your view, and it writes up a response against the consultation's own numbered questions, ready to paste in. Nothing you type reaches us, it stays in your browser.
Build your response to the Heathrow consultation
Tick the things that actually concern you. We'll turn them into a response written against the consultation's own numbered questions, ready to paste in, each section headed with the question it answers. Nothing you type here reaches us or anyone else — it stays in your browser.
You do not need to answer every question for your response to count. Pick the ones that matter most to you — the government has said it gives more weight to argument and evidence than to expressions of support or opposition, so three well-made points beat fifteen ticked boxes.
One or two sentences about your own experience carries more weight than anything we can write for you. What time do the planes wake you? What can't you do in your garden? Which park has it spoiled? What has changed?
Tick at least one concern above and your response will appear here.
How the form works. Each question sits on its own page. You pick an option from Strongly agree to Don’t know, and then a following page gives you a box headed “Explain your answer”. The scale is yours to answer as you see fit; the text below is for the explain box. Each section of your response is headed with the page it belongs to.
How to send it. The easiest route is the government's online form — each section of your response is headed with the page it belongs to. You can also email the whole thing to henpsconsultation@dft.gov.uk, or post it to the Airports National Policy Statement Review Team, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR. Responses must arrive by 11:59pm on Tuesday 1 September 2026. Email responses get an acknowledgement within about 15 minutes — check your spam folder if one doesn't arrive.
We are not the only guide. Putney's MP and the No 3rd Runway Coalition have both published their own response guides, and both argue for objecting. This tool lets you say what you actually think, including agreeing with the government. Every word above is editable, and you should edit it — it exists to save you the blank page, not to write your response for you.
Responded? We'd like to know how many people in SW15 did — drop us a line at postbox@putney.news. Something not working?
You can also email henpsconsultation@dft.gov.uk directly, or post to the Airports National Policy Statement Review Team, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR.
Responses have to arrive by 11:59pm, Tuesday 1 September. After that, this window closes, and the next chance to have a say on any of this is the airspace redesign consultation, which isn't expected for another two to three years, on rules that will already be fixed.
This weekend is what's left.
Reading the files yourself
The Putney Society's response. Submitted 17 August; the summary is on the Society's Transport Panel page.
The government's own admissions. The Department for Transport's Q+A pack from its 12 August webinar, published by the Heathrow Expansion Independent Community Engagement Board: read it here.
The draft policy itself. The consultation and draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement are both on GOV.UK, alongside the Appraisal of Sustainability Noise Annex and the Green Book Appraisal Report.
Wider tracking. heathrowexpansionwatch.org, run by the Council for the Independent Scrutiny of Heathrow Airport.
