Heathrow protesters let fly

The 30,000-strong coalition of environmentalists, politicians and residents is opposed to a third runway.

The proposal has received Gordon Brown's backing and a 12-week consultation period was launched by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly last month.

The campaigners claim the plan makes a mockery of Britain's pledge to be a world leader on climate change, and will mean increases in noise for residents of west London and parts of the Home Counties. They say the consultation is a "farce".

The scale of the opposition means the Government is facing probably the biggest grassroots fight against a major infrastructure project.

The residents of Sipson - which will be wiped off the map - and neighbouring villages such as Harlington and Longford have formed the No Third Runway Action Group, funded by Hillingdon council. They are led by mother-of-three Geraldine Nicholson, who lives in West Drayton.

Mrs Nicholson, 38, has not been involved in political activism before but was galvanised into action after discovering she could be living 200 metres from planes taking off or landing every 90 seconds. She fears losing many friends who would be forced to leave the area, while the school where her son is due to start next September would be demolished.

She said: "So many people will be affected by this. People say we knew we were moving close to an airport when we came here but a lot of people were born here and now our communities are being shattered.

"The Government says we won't be affected because we don't have to move. How can they say that when I will be one of those left behind with the runway 200 metres from my door?"

Another NoTRAG member is Christine Shilling, a mother of two who lives in Harmondsworth. She said: "We have to stop the Government doing this - we can and we will. If the Government can just wipe out a whole community they can do anything, anywhere.

"This is not democracy. NoTRAG is full of ordinary people desperate not to lose their homes and their communities."

Bryan Sobey is a member of NoTRAG and chairman of Harmondsworth and Sipson Residents' Association, which has been fighting Heathrow expansion for years. The 79-year-old grandfather said: "Put simply, we don't want to move - we're getting a bit old for that. I still attend the marches and protests, even though I'm fighting cancer as well. I might as well battle both things together. We believe we have a chance. Otherwise what would be the point fighting?"

Other bodies opposed to the third runway include the 2M Group, an alliance of councils which claims to represent the two million people who would be affected; and the long-established HACAN ClearSkies, supported by MPs, MEPs, councils, residents' groups, businesses, the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, environmental groups and other organisations, such as the National Trust.

Radical action group Plane Stupid has promised demonstrations will dwarf the anti-road movement protests of the Nineties. This summer the group set up a camp outside Heathrow, and recently it disrupted a Commons committee interrogating Stephen Nelson, the chief executive of BAA, which runs the airport.

Robbie Gillett of Plane Stupid said: "Stopping the third runway is essential if we are to have any chance of stopping catastrophic climate change. Flights from the third runway would produce as much CO2 as Kenya does in a year, according to the World Development Movement.

"The 'climate camp' last summer was just the beginning. Across the political spectrum people are realising that as long as the Government is cuddled up to British Airways and BAA, direct action will be necessary to stop this environmental lunacy. The Government is foolish to think people will take this lying down." He added: "Everyone realises the consultation is a farce. The Government has framed the debate in terms it knows it can win, which is why it has excluded climate change from the discussion."