Collectively tackling the rogue ‘meet and greet’ operators around Heathrow

I am Dr Roger Green, the independent chair for the Local Community Forum. 

Earlier this year the forum members raised with me their deep concerns about the issues of airport related parking in their local communities around the airport. In particular cars being abandoned for a period of time by rogue ‘meet and greet’ operators who sell a parking service to passengers using Heathrow Airport. 

Unethical ‘meet and greet’ operatives are parking customers' cars whilst the owners fly off from Heathrow. Alarmingly, these customers are often unaware their cars are being dumped in local streets or used for illegal activity rather than parked in secure designated parking areas. As airport activities return to pre-pandemic levels, and more operators are looking to exploit passengers, complaints of these rogue operators have been increasing.

Local Community Forum representatives helpfully produced heat maps showing the areas around Heathrow that are most affected. Representatives from Aviation Policing updated us on their work. All parties agreed the matter had to be escalated to ensure appropriate action was taken, and for progress to be made it would have to be a collective effort.

As a result of the concerns raised, CISHA commissioned research to investigate the current situation, review best practise and suggest recommendations which they brought back to us at the Local Community Forum for further discussion and input. Following all their feedback I put together a paper which I presented at the Heathrow Area Transport Forum (HATF).

LCF and CISHA were keen to come up with actions on how the problem should best be addressed and which interested parties should be involved. I am pleased to report that HATF along with the Heathrow team gave their commitment to drive forward progress with a Special Interest Group dedicated to dealing specifically with this issue with local authorities and the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group. 

At the latest CISHA meeting in July, I also raised the parking issues on behalf of the Local Community Forum with Heathrow’s CEO John Holland Kaye. He confirmed that Heathrow Airport Limited recognised this as an important issue which they, along with other stakeholders, had a part to play in. 

I am delighted to tell you that the Special Interest Group is expected to meet in the next few weeks to make progress on resolving these problems together. 

The latest news is that Aviation Policing is also encouraging. They have had a major breakthrough with 13 arrests in several rogue meet and greet companies. These companies were responsible for 90% of the meet and greet offences which has meant a rapid decline in reported incidents. Community members also have noticed a decline in these vehicles in their local neighbourhoods which they were delighted with.  

This is by no means the end of the matter as more companies are created regularly but it is a great step in the right direction, and we are all grateful for the work of the aviation police.

If you have encountered any issues see details below on how you report them. 

Trading standards

If you were unable to resolve an issue with your parking company directly you can contact Trading Standards tradingstandards@hillingdon.gov.uk

Metropolitan Police

For any criminal issues you can contact the Metropolitan Police by calling 101 or alternatively online www.met.police.uk/   

A thank you to everyone involved for their part in driving progress on this important matter. We look forward to hearing about the progress from the Special Interest Group.

Dr Roger Green, Chair, Local Community Forum