HEATHROW Airport's promise it will reduce night flights and halt noise and pollution if it is allowed to build a controversial third runway has been branded a 'last desperate throw of the dice' by an aircraft noise campaigner.

The airport's pledge has come ahead of a final decision expected this summer, following the EU referendum, on whether to expand Heathrow or Gatwick.

Airport bosses have said they will allow a longer quiet period overnight, with flights not allowed to land between 11pm and 5:30am, from their current 11.30pm finish and 4.30am start - differing from the recommendations made by Sir Howard Davies and the Airport Commission, which wanted a ban on night flights between 11.30pm and 6am.

The airport is promising to meet the report's calls for limits to overall noise and has guaranteed that local pollution would not get worse.

Heathrow supported the introduction of an independent noise authority and agreed not to add new capacity unless the airport complied with EU air quality limits.

But Murray Barter, from Residents Against Aircraft Noise which covers Ascot and Bracknell and the surrounding areas, said: "This is a last desperate throw of the dice by Heathrow, and doesn't address the underlying issue of Heathrow simply being built in the wrong location in the first place.

"Expansion would lead to the demolition of at least 783 homes and render another 4,000 unlivable within. Its existing site could be more usefully deployed for much-needed housing in the South East.

"As well as the current noise desecration, it would also vastly ease the South Eastern road & rail congestion as well as air quality.

"Heathrow claim to back a ban on scheduled flights between the hours of 11pm to 5.30am - 'an increase from five hours today'. However the truth is, there is no current ban on night flights, and Heathrow have an average of 16 every night and there are many exceptions made to 'scheduled' flights. Actual flight times routinely spill over beyond 'scheduled' flight times.

"The only tangible meaning would be to have a complete ban on all air traffic movements during the night period. For a proper nights' sleep, most people believe this should be an eight hour period."

Cheapside resident Karin Clark said: "Based in Cheapside and monitoring the last 18 months of flight radar this will never happen and is a weak PR attempt at local appeasement.

"The offer is purely to gain support for Heathrow versus Gatwick and stifle local residents who have had their homes, lives and environment completely disrupted.

"The flights now are even lower i.e. below 4,000ft on a regular basis, the noise is horrific and the current flight time parameters (11pm to 6am) are increasingly elastic.

"Any flights which are delayed, the majority are still allowed to land, depart and circle no matter if early morning or post 11pm. My family is consistently awoken from the flights over head often from 4.30am!

"Something we never had until 18 months ago as the planes are so low now. Prior to this we would have only seen them but not heard them."

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Heathrow's CEO John Holland-Kaye, wrote: "You set up the Airports Commission and it unanimously recommended expanding Heathrow. You demanded ambitious plans from my team to deliver expansion with a bold and fair deal for our neighbours.

"I am proud to submit a comprehensive plan that meets and exceeds your demands. This is a big commitment from us, but it is the right choice for the country, local communities and jobs across Britain."