Temple announce they have been appointed by Heathrow Community Engagement Board Ltd

13.08.2019 3 min read

Temple is delighted to announce they have been appointed to support Heathrow Community Engagement Board Ltd (HCEB)1 on developing a vision for sustainable Heathrow communities.

HCEB is an organisation independent from Heathrow Airport and government, set up to increase community and stakeholder participation in Heathrow’s planning and decision-making processes.

Working with HCEB, Temple will be engaging with communities around Heathrow including residents, businesses and local authorities to understand their needs and concerns as well as providing clear, reliable and impartial information on how they cannot just survive, but also thrive alongside the airport whether it is granted permission to expand or remains a two runway airport. This includes helping build local community consensus and capability to engage with Heathrow on their current and future needs and aspirations in the context of the Development Consent Order (DCO) process for a third runway.

Through the preparation of a Communities Strategic Development Framework (CSDF), Temple is seeking to maximise community social value by identifying and capturing opportunities to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of those affected by the day-to-day operations of the airport and any forthcoming expansion and construction works. The CSDF will include a vision to guide the realisation of ‘thriving sustainable Heathrow communities’ over the next 30 years and beyond, and to inform recommendations to Heathrow. The CSDF will also contain a Community Needs Scorecard against which the performance of Heathrow’s masterplan proposals, their Community Compensation Fund and their commitments from the DCO2 process can be tracked and scored in relation to the extent to which they do or do not contribute to meeting the needs, and realising the aspirations, of affected local communities.

Building on Temple’s experience of using digital services in the planning process, they are using their “Areal” software to create a multi-platform interactive digital engagement tool to share information and engage with traditional as well as often quieter groups, in addition to capturing more granular location data to provide greater spatial insight on local issues.

The work will also involve identifying and disseminating transferable examples of construction best practice and community engagement from major infrastructure and development projects across the UK and around the world to provide an evidence-base to help inform and benchmark Heathrow’s measures for construction management, mitigation and compensation.

HCEB was set up by to fulfil and deliver the joint requirements of an airport consultative committee under section 35 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 and a community engagement board as set out in the Government’s Airports National Policy Statement. HCEB’s defined purpose is to ensure all key stakeholders of Heathrow Airport have the opportunity to contribute to decision making concerning on-going operations and any proposed future development of the airport; as well as to foster constructive relationships between Heathrow Airport and its key stakeholders by:
a) promoting meaningful and inclusive engagement, which has demonstrable impact on decision making
b) scrutinising and challenging its consultation plans and activities, making recommendations for improvement
c) holding it to account for the commitments it has made as part of the DCO process

The Planning Inspectorate Guide to the Development Consent Process https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/document/3168533

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