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2,500 protesters vent fury over Heathrow 'sham' consultation
Mark Blunden, Evening Standard26.02.08
Environmental campaigners, politicians and residents united in a massive show of defiance over government plans to expand Heathrow.
Central Hall in Westminster was packed with up to 2,500 people last night while hundreds more remained on the pavement outside for the biggest anti-Heathrow expansion rally so far.
The protest - organised by No Third Runway Action Group (NoTRAG) and Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan Clear Skies) - was timed to be just before the end of the Government's consultation into plans for a third runway at the west London airport, a possible sixth terminal and greater use of the existing two runways.
But campaign group Greenpeace claims the Government's consultation process, which closes tomorrow, was "fixed".
Yesterday's rally came just hours after four Greenpeace protesters evaded Heathrow security to unfurl a banner on the tail of an Airbus A320 reading: "Climate Emergency. No 3rd runway."
They have now been bailed and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has launched an investigation into the "irresponsible" breach.
But campaigners today promised more protests, including a "flash mob" at the official opening of Terminal 5 on 27 March.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said at the rally: "The case for extending Heathrow Airport is so threadbare it's embarrassing. It's clear from this extraordinary consultation document that they don't speak English there. Where is the box that simply says no, no, no?".
And protesters who live near Heathrow told how family graves would be torn up and new roads come within 10 feet of their back door.
Christine Taylor, 50, a full-time campaigner from Harlington, said: "I found out on my 50th birthday that I was going to have a major road 10 feet from my back door. There are fields there at the moment so the pollution alone is a huge concern.
"My life is going to be completely shattered if these plans go ahead. We feel that we've been left totally on our own."
Another resident, Tony Bond, 47, a telecoms engineer from Hillingdon, said the graves of his brother, sister, father and grandparents will be ripped up under the proposals. "They are buried in Cherry Lane Cemetery - for that to be taken away from us is obscene.
"I can't believe that they are even considering doing this to our family grave. My grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday last year and she knew Heathrow when it was a little village."
But British Airways hit back today, attacking objectors for peddling "myths" about the economic and environmental impact of the plans.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: "If Heathrow's international connectivity continues to decline, UK-based business will lose competitiveness and be forced to consider relocating abroad." He added: "There will be no increase in overall emissions."
But pressure groups claim more than 50 new areas will be blighted by increased noise and pollution, which will devastate local schools.
One big concern is "mixed mode" flights, allowing planes to land and take off at shorter intervals. Residents claim this will mean a plane taking off or landing every 90 seconds.
Filmmaker Rebecca Frayn, 45, from Chiswick, said: "I don't want planes flying low over Chiswick High Road every 90 seconds."
Arthur Moore, 56, a company director from Chiswick, said: "We're going to have planning blight in the area for the next 12 years."
Mayoral rivals Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone both recorded video messages for the rally, adding their voices to the campaign, which is supported by 14 councils around Heathrow.
Reader views (14)
My family decamped to Chiswick, carefully plotting where the planes did not go because they had a screaming mum and screaming baby who could not sleep in St Margarets, now they will move again. And further away from our family base in west London where my family have been here since the war, so to those people who say, Move, we have moved, and we keep on moving, when do we stop please? When there is no community left but the country and this hideous government feel well pleased that tourists can fly over our heads and wake us up every day and disturb us? Brown, you are a dead man walking for sure
- Pam, twickenham
I spent my formative years in Richmond moving to Leeds in 1975 but my elderly parents still live under the flightpath. It is awful noise, pollution and one day perhaps a crash - it is a wonder it has not happened yet to a slum of an airport. If one lives outside London there is no need to travel abroad via Heathrow. From my local airport I get excellent connections via Schiphol or I can travel from Manchester.
The Government hopefully will listen to residents and not be as it seems to me, only listening to big business which is not there to consider peoples`s wishes.
Arguments about giving jobs and what about London as a financial centre are not on - anyway Canary Wharf and the city are just as easily approached from Gatwick or London City airports as Heathrow.
Do we need to blight for generations to come the air over London. I am old enough to remember when plans were considered for a possible airport on mudflats by the Essex coast. Hong Kong had the technology to build a modern airport out to sea why not us with fast links it might have been a better investment than the white elephant of the Olympic set up at Stratford.
- Dr Michael Waugh, Leeds England
The emissions question is easy to answer. Mixed mode means that aircraft for T4 can land on the southerly runway and taxi straight to the gate. It can take 20 minutes to cross the airfield, and an active runway with the risk of collision, burning unnecessary fuel. That improves local air quality as well. It also means that aircraft spend much less time stacking over Heathrow, again wasting fuel.
- Ian, Chalfont St Gile
"There will be no increase in overall emissions," says Willie Walsh. How can he reconcile this statement with adding hundreds of thousands of new flights each year from Heathrow?
I moved to Chiswick a year ago specifically to avoid living under a flight path. Now the airlines and foreign-owned BAA want to start a new one directly over my house. And the government doesn't even bother to consult me about it.
- Matthew, Chiswick, London
To all those who love to "insult" people by constantly using the word nimby, this is a democratic country and people are free to let their feelings known, attack their ideas if you don't like it but not the people. It is just too easy.
Heathrow is a sham, and BAA are the one who cannot manage it, so when they run out of ideas on how to run an airport, what do they do? Ask for a new runway and a new terminal. Where are you going to put all these new planes arriving, start queuing in Scotland maybe?
- Ian, Richmond
Heavily partisan pressure groups such as those mentioned in this article are sadly being allowed to parrot fiction as fact.
I live right under the flightpath to Heathrow; and I chose to do so as did just about everyone else in this area. No-one forces anyone to live near Heathrow; property values are so inflated by demand that people can easily move if they wish to.
Heathrow is one of the few great successes of the UK on the world stage, and it is currently being strangled by rampant nimbyism.
Heathrow employs tens of thousands of residents in the surrounding boroughs (Hounslow, Feltham, etc.), with tens of thousands more working for companies directly dependent on the continued growth and success of Heathrow. The simple, unarguable fact is that if it isn't allowed to expand, and soon, it will quietly die; and thousands of jobs will be lost to Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.
So please, to all the nimby "protestors"... If you don't want Heathrow to expand, do everyone else a favour and move away.
Thanks
- Laurence Hawcroft, Osterley, England
Twenty-four hours ago, I didn't think that Brian Paddick would be a suitable candidate for London's Mayor, nor that he had a cat's chance in Hell. Having seen him at last night's rally, and noted the absence of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, I'm not so sure. Certainly, he'll have my vote now.
- John, Richmond UK
"If Heathrow's international connectivity continues to decline, UK-based business will lose competitiveness and be forced to consider relocating abroad."
Perhaps the decline is due to the fact that going through an airport these days is the equivalent of a Gestapo interrogation followed by purgatory. One spends more time in the airport than on the plane. Talk about a time saver! Thus it is rather unsurprising that the level of reluctance in travelling through the UK's major hubs is increasing.
- Eddy , London
Although I am a firm supporter of the expansion of Heathrow, I agree that the consultation has been absurd. Contrary to what Nick Clegg says, there is a very powerful case for expansion which is not being properly made other than behind the scenes. However, all 'consultation' in modern government is fraudulent (sorry, that's the only word for it - sham is too polite). What happens is that the core plan is fixed and the consultation simply allows for the minor details, the fringe aspects which might make a difference to some but which in fact do not address any major or central concerns. Sham consultation over the C-Charge western extension and the plans for the West London Tram make clear that this is not just a central government issue...this will get worse with increasing numbers of basic decisions made at EU level, because how can you have proper and meaningful 'consultation' when a higher level of government is demanding a course of action or a plan along lines already agreed centrally at the top? You can only fiddle with tiny details if they are not prescribed. How can 'lower' levels or popular protest change anything in those circumstances?
- Damian Hockney Am, Mayoral candidate, One London Party, City Hall
I used to work for BAA at a senior level, and I am very sad that the growth of Heathrow continues to be unplanned, unpredictable, unbalanced and unreasonable.
- Mike Bell, Midsomer Norton, Somerset
How typically disingenuous for BA's Willie Walsh to claim that emissions will not increase as a result of a third runway and increases in flight numbers. He's deluding himself if he imagines anyone will believe him.
Still the fact that he needs to issue a rebuttal shows he is running scared.
- Robert Palgrave, Woking
When are people going to realise that we should be curtailing air travel and use less damaging travel such as trains where possible. St Pancras and the Eurostar is an excellent example of first class travel at minimal impact to the environment. Whilst a cheap air ticket may be initially cheaper, the subsequent environmental impact are likely to be significantly more. Anyone who denies air travel is linked to climate climate needs to wake up and look what's going on.
- John Mcivor, Tunbridge Wells
Johnson and Livingstone didn't attend this rally - in spite of the fact it was booked months ago. Instead they patronised protesters with videos of themselves.
Brian Paddick attended in person and he was very very good.
After this performance it is clear that he is the most interesting and potentially capable candidate for new mayor. I'm not a Lib Dem. It was obvious however that in general their representation and commitment(including comments from Vince Cable as well as Clegg) was very impressive at this rally.
- Martyn, London
I attended this rally - a further 500 had to go to another hall. The level of furry is such that this government has produced militants out of retired pensioners and direct action activists out of office workers. This pandora's box is open and Labour as a functioning party in London is over if they continue with this scheme - especially in the face of CAA and NATS reports that the airspace is full!
- Christian, London, UK
