A campaign by residents, MPs and local authorities will argue a third runway at Heathrow will be “politically undeliverable”.
Campaigners will highlight the potential risk to shareholders of spending millions of pounds developing detailed plans, when they are likely to face the same level of opposition that led to a previous scheme being ditched in 2010.
Protesters believe the issue of noise will be insurmountable, despite arguments by third runway promoters that noise pollution will lessen due to developments in aircraft technology.
Anti-Heathrow expansion campaigners have met MPs and local authorities to draw up a plan of attack, after the Airports Commission last month shortlisted two possible options for expansion together with a second runway at Gatwick.
Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN) has met MPs including Zac Goldsmith and John McDonnell, as well as representatives of Richmond, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Wandsworth councils.
They intend to stress to shareholders, who include Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial and one of the UK’s largest pension funds, that their investment plans will face strong protests.
Campaigners also plan to stress that a third runway is “politically undeliverable” even if it is recommended by the Commission’s chairman Sir Howard Davies, The Telegraph reported.
HACAN chairman John Stewart told the newspaper: “The last Labour government failed to get through its plans for a third runway. The opposition from residents, environmentalists and politicians of all parties was just too great.
“Three years on, the prize which Heathrow airport wants above all else remains politically undeliverable.”
Daniel Moylan, London mayor Boris Johnson’s chief aviation adviser, said: “The mayor shares HACAN’s view that the expansion of Heathrow is neither acceptable nor politically deliverable.”
But a spokesman for Heathrow pointed to a poll conducted by Populus which found that people in west London are more likely to vote for their MP if they support Heathrow expansion than if they oppose a third runway.
Heathrow chief executive Colin Matthews claimed the findings showed the political cost of supporting a third runway had been “vastly overstated”.