Ten regional sites on long list for Heathrow work

The North West schemes are among the 65 sites competing to house four proposed offsite construction and manufacturing facilities for the airport’s third runway project.

Chosen from a list of 121 applications, the sites include four put forward by Manchester’s inward investment agency MIDAS: Kingsway in Rochdale, Airport City, Peel’s Port Salford and Harworth Estates’ Logistics North in Bolton.

There are two parts of Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard site on the list: Lairds’ main Campbelltown Road site itself and the MEA Park site on Beaufort Road within Wirral Waters. The Port of Liverpool and Lillyhall Industrial Estate at Sellafield also feature, while two Deeside sites, TATA Shotton and Praxis’ Airfields Northern Gateway, make up the list of contenders from the region.

Once the selection is made, the successful four locations will hosue facilities for the pre-assembly of components of the expanded airport before they are transported in consolidated loads to Heathrow.

The competition to secure the expansion ahead of rival schemes including Gatwick was fierce for Heathrow, and the £16bn scheme continues to attract proposals for alternative solutions and attacks from climate change activists, eight months after public consultation was launched.

Airport operator BAA, part of Ferrovial, has thus been at pains to describe the scheme as being of national importance, saying that “Britain’s new runway will create jobs in every corner of the UK” and that “the hubs will also create a legacy of construction excellence in the UK for future generations”.

Heathrow chairman Lord Deighton said: “Heathrow’s third runway will rely on talent from all over Britain helping to create a national asset for generations to come. This means new procurement opportunities for businesses in every region, helping drive growth and investment into local communities in all corners of this country.

“The third runway is not a London-centric project – it is one we are opening up to the whole of the UK, asking for its skills and expertise to help build an asset this country so desperately needs to safeguard its future prosperity.”

Civil Engineering Contractors Association chief executive Alasdair Reisner added: “We are keen that the whole of the UK benefits from the expansion of Heathrow. We see huge potential for the logistics hubs to stimulate the growth of new industrial heartlands across the country.”

Heathrow hopes to make a final planning application by the end of 2020 and have the project completed by 2025.