In November last year, BAA committed to ruling out building a road anywhere within the Cherry Lane Cemetery boundary.

We know some local residents were alarmed by a map that appeared in the Department for Transport’s consultation document on ‘Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport’ that appeared to show a road going through Cherry Lane Cemetery.

This map was one of several indicative road layouts that were drawn up for the purposes of air quality modelling during the Project for the Sustainable Development of Heathrow (PSDH). These layouts were very early, indicative-only versions of potential road layouts for a third runway development. The road within the Cherry Lane Cemetery boundary was considered to have the best road layout from an engineering perspective and that is why that particular option was published in the Government’s consultation document.

However, we recognise that putting a road through the cemetery would be entirely unacceptable to the local community and we would have ruled it out during any third runway planning process. Despite not having begun the planning process, we decided to bring this decision forward in November last year to put local residents’ minds at rest - it was evident that uncertainty was causing considerable distress to the local community.

Now a Government decision has been taken in favour of a third runway, we will be working with Transport for London, the Highways Agency and local authorities to carry out detailed transport planning. As part of this process, we will carry out consultation with the local community on options for future road layouts relating to a third runway. None of these plans will include an option for building a road through Cherry Lane Cemetery.

We are in regular contact with the Cherry Lane Against Development (CLAD) community group and will continue to liaise with community leaders to address any further concerns about Cherry Lane Cemetery. We know how important the cemetery is to those who have loved ones buried there and are absolutely committed to our decision to rule out a road through the graveyard.

If you have any further queries on this issue, please don’t hesitate to contact our community team on 020 8745 5791.