Public consultation is due on Heathrow airport expansion

The 2M Group has accused the government of "trying to bury" a study indicating Heathrow noise may annoy two million more people than previously estimated.

The Department for Transport said: "The study found no specific point at which noise becomes a serious annoyance."

Public consultation on plans to build a third runway at the west London airport is due to begin this month.

The 2M Group represents 12 local authorities who expect to be affected by expansion of Heathrow Airport, including the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham and the boroughs of Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead, Spelthorne and South Bucks District Council.

Whether you're in Shepherds Bush or Stoke Poges, Wandsworth or Windsor, your life is about to get a lot noisier Edward Lister, 2M Group spokesman

It estimated that the number of flights at the airport could rise from 480,000 to 800,000 per year as a result of expansion.

"Whether you're in Shepherds Bush or Stoke Poges, Wandsworth or Windsor, your life is about to get a lot noisier," said 2M Group spokesman and Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister.

Some 2,733 residents were questioned in the Attitudes to Noise from Aviation Sources in England (ANASE) study, commissioned six years ago by ministers.

It found that levels of annoyance at noise from Heathrow were "consistently greater" than they were 27 years ago. It also found that people began to be significantly disturbed at lower levels of noise.

'Accepted findings'

On Friday Mr Lister said the government was "trying to bury their own study which shows how badly things have deteriorated over the last 25 years".

The Department for Transport spokesman denied this.

"We accepted its two key findings - that there is no particular threshold where aircraft noise starts to become a serious annoyance, and that peer reviewers said the report's valuations were not robust enough to be relied upon," he said.

"As a result we could have abandoned the existing restriction on noise levels of 57 decibels and above, but we believe it is right that we retain this as a safeguard for those most affected by aircraft noise."

The department has stipulated that any Heathrow expansion must not "increase the area where people experience the highest noise levels".

The 2M Group also said ministers had been working with airports owner BAA to examine how air pollution and noise levels could be contained.

"The information used in the process has been kept secret from local authorities," it added.