Is it the final call for the Heathrow villagers?

Life with the residents whose homes could be destroyed if a third runway touches down

- RUTH BLOOMFIELD

When Jane Taylor was a child, life was good. She lived in a peaceful village on the western outskirts of London. The local children played safely outside together until dusk, bikes were ridden in the streets, and helicopter parenting had not been invented.

She knew her neighbours and she attended the village school, doing well enough to go on to university and a career as an occupational therapist with the NHS. Taylor has spent most of her 69 years in the village of Sipson, a life which has been blighted by one thing: Heathrow Airport and its plans to expand.

Sipson, and neighbouring villages Harmondsworth and Harlington, are part of an ancient parish with history dating back 1,000 years and mentions in the Domesday Book. The Grade II listed King William IV pub at Sipson crossroads is a former medieval hall house and dates back to the 16th century with many of the original features still on show.

Today, located in the London borough of Hillingdon, the villages sit in a dismal mile-wide strip of land marooned between the M4 motorway and the airport. For two decades a dwindling band of locals has been fighting off plans to add a third runway to the airport, which would mean the destruction of the villages.

"In my view it is criminal to take away people's homes when we are already in a housing crisis," says Taylor. "We estimate that up to 17,000 people will be made homeless."

A few weeks ago Chancellor Rachel Reeves reconfirmed the Government's commitment to building a third runway at Heathrow, arguing that the massive infrastructure project would help revive the UK's stalling economy and make Britain the "world's best-connected place to do business". Her comments horrified not just the locals of Sipson but London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who opposes the plan because of the noise and air pollution it will bring to large swathes of the capital.