An extensive consultation period is set to begin next month on Heathrow's multi-million pound expansion plans.

The 12 and a half-week consultation will get underway on 18 June and help shape a final planning application for the project.

Heathrow has invested in new technology to show the public its current proposals, including a model of the future airport which uses augmented reality, and a sound booth to be used at certain locations which features virtual reality to demonstrate the effect of noise insulation on properties overflown by aircraft. Having listened to feedback from previous consultations, Heathrow will be holding events in more locations than previously and, in addition to an extensive national publicity campaign across newspapers, radio, billboards, digital and – for the first time -  Spotify, will be contacting 2.6 million households directly in the vicinity of the airport with a leaflet encouraging participation.

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The consultation follows the High Court's dismissal of legal challenges against Heathrow expansion. 

It will seek feedback on four key areas: Heathrow's preferred masterplan for expansion; plans to operate the future airport; assessment of impacts of the airport's growth; and plans to manage the impacts of expansion.

Urging people to participate in the upcoming consultation, Heathrow's Executive Director for Expansion, Emma Gilthorpe said: "Heathrow's expansion is a project of huge national and local significance, and it is critical to our country's economic growth. An expanded hub airport will allow the country to access more of the world, create thousands of jobs locally and nationally and it will open up new trading routes. But we can't deliver these plans alone. We urge everyone to have their say in this consultation, to shape our plans, and to help us deliver expansion in the fairest and most sustainable way."

Heathrow will submit a final proposal to the Planning Inspectorate in 2020.

(CM/JG)