fl, I think with respect you may have missed my point, I was talking hypothetically about a new waste plant, not an expansion of an existing one, which is what the new runway proposal is to those affected.
I wouldn't expect there to be too many complaints from your listed areas, from my experience, because of the relatively busy urban area's which you describe. However those complaints that do come from those areas I would expect to come from affluent, professional backgrounds. Closer in to the airport you will see a wider spread in the socio-economic background, hence a more concentrated and vocal opposition. In a previous life I regularly dealt with complaints from 10nm away when the aircraft were at 3,000ft on approach, and still waking the complainant, including 146's!
. I also suspect that because the traffic was there when you moved, and you are interested in aviation, you are far less likely to be disturbed by any increase. Those outside our industry are far less likely to be so tolerant, and the lay public do indeed notice changes even of relatively small magnitude!.
A new runway north of Heathrow will put many thousands of departures/arrivals across an area currently 'unaffected' by Heathrow. Therefore you would be looking at traffic arriving approximately 70% of the time across the north of London from Islington westwards. This is a whole new selection of customers for the BAA complaints section to deal with, who may feel that they have justifiable reason to object. Many of the locals there have been bowled curved balls by sucessive governments regarding capping and and expansion of Heathrow, it is now that the BAA and various politicians are beginning to reap what they sew!