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Eco-protest hits Gatwick
Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter07.08.08
Eco-activists breached security at Gatwick airport today in a protest against short-haul flights.
In a separate action, another group blocked deliveries from a biofuel depot.
The campaign of disruption coincides with a protest camp near Kingsnorth power station in Kent, which will culminate in a day of action on Saturday.
At Gatwick, two campaigners clambered on to the roof rafters in the arrivals lounge, unfurling a banner urging travellers to use trains rather than planes. Two more activists handcuffed themselves to railings on a mezzanine floor.
Three more handed out leaflets attacking Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly.
The stunt was organised by Plane Stupid, the anti-aviation group which mounted a rooftop protest on the Palace of Westminster in February.
One of the group's leaders Tamsin Omond, on police bail for the Parliament protest, said she and fellow activists infiltrated the airport at 7.50am. She named the activists in the roof as Elizabeth Baines, 23, a student at University College London, and a 38-year-old man known only as Mike.
The two chained to the railings were identified as Lotti Rutter, 20, who works for an environmental charity, and a man called Jake, 27. The group pointed to the large number of daily flights from London to Edinburgh compared with just 22 trains on the same journey.
Ms Rutter said: "A lot of people will be going to the Edinburgh Festival and we're here to ask them to make the right decision - to take the train."
At the Vopak depot in Thurrock, Essex, which supplies Tesco and Morrisons, three men and a woman climbed onto a container and unfurled a banner protesting-against the use of biofuels, which campaigners claim have caused rainforest destruction and even starvation. Eight other protesters chained themselves together at the depot's entrance and staged a sit-down protest. Eight people are thought to have been arrested.
Reader views (5)
I hope the protesters succeed in putting a brake on airport expansion plans for Gatwick and Heathrow because the local economies are already too heavily dependent on the airport.
Increasing oil prices and increasing concern for the environment mean that air transport will soon need to contract rather than expand. This could have a severe impact on the local economies surrounding major airports unless they diversify urgently, preferably into industries that involve sustainable energy resources and energy conservation. I hope the protesters succeed in putting a brake on airport expansion plans for Gatwick and Heathrow because the local economies are already too heavily dependent on the airport.
- John Byng, Crawley, UK.
These protesters are making a rather simple point and in an extraordinary way. It is simply madness to fly people to Edinburgh from London when there are perfectly adequate, high-speed rail links between the two cities. I doubt even that people are saving any time whatsoever in flying yet in so doing they contribute in their small way to the inexorable march toward climate chaos. Short-haul flights have no place in a country that proclaims itself to be serious about the environmental agenda. Full stop. These kinds of protest will increase until government discovers it has a voice against the kind of corporate greed and short-termism that pushes for ever more rapid growth and 'customer choice' at an ever greater cost to the earth and its peoples. We should support them.
- Oliver, London
Good on them - you have got to have a pretty desperate lifestyle to need to fly within the UK mainland.
- Chris, Swindon, UK
Flying is already difficult enough these days, what with terrorist threats, fuel rises and increased security. It does not need these eco-morons and their stupid and pointless protests adding to mix. Hopefully, a sensible judge will lock them all up for a considerable period!
- Jeff, Hobart, Australia
I can never understand the way our Police Force deals with these weirdos.
If they want to climb and handcuff themselves on somebody's roof, let them, don't close all the roads around to inconvenience thousand of motorists, leave them, let them come down in their own good time.
It's their decision.
After 2 or 3 night on somebody's roof, scaffolding, gate, they would beg to be let down.
We encourage them by sending people up and giving them TV or Press coverage.
Leave them alone for a few days and all these "protests" would cease.
- Paul Epps, twickenham
