OK, concede that Southampton Road and parts of Shoreham Road would have to go, but not LHR-4. It is to the east of this proposed rwy. Final approaches for it on westerly operations would be over what is now the oil terminal, and south of LHR-4.
No. Read the ES article again.
"The Standard has been told the favoured new option is to build on land stretching from the existing airport towards Stanwell Moor village and
north of local reservoirs"
But a runway that started west of the Bedfont oil terminal would point directly at the Staines Reservoir, and could only be about 1200m long, which is clearly ridiculous.
If the rwy went through LHR-4, it would not be far enough away from 09R/27L for simultaneous operations, and would therefore be about as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.
Agreed.
If it did not take out Stanwell, but just Stanwellmoor and went right up to the M25, it would be a very short rwy, just about 1 mi.
Agreed.
Either way going south of LHR is not particularly practical.
That's an understatement.
I think the fact that, unlike all the previous proposals, we haven't seen a published plan that actually shows the runway position/alignment tells us all we need to know about how well it has been thought through.
One might even conclude that the whole scheme is a red herring, not intended to be taken seriously, the object being simply to mobilise the maximum opposition to it and thereby "prove" that the northern option wasn't so bad after all.