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THE environmental group Greenpeace has adopted an ingenious approach to blocking a third runway at Heathrow.
It has purchased land about the size of a football pitch in the village of Sipson — an area that would be required in the construction of the runway — and has parcelled it out into smallholdings to hundreds of owners.
It is not an insuperable obstacle, but serving compulsory purchase orders on this ragbag of holders would undeniably be a headache that BAA, the owner of Heathrow, could do without. It could also significantly increase its legal fees.
Those in favour of expansion are redoubling their efforts too. Yesterday, a consortium of business and union leaders met to put the case for a third runway. The Unite union said turning down the proposal would endanger 172,000 jobs; BA chief Willie Walsh declared that expansion was necessary if Heathrow were to be an effective hub.
More seriously, there are renewed signs that approval of a third runway, to which the Prime Minister appears to be committed, is running into difficulties at Westminster. The long-delayed announcement was expected this week but now it appears that it may be deferred for longer.
Gordon Brown has intimated to Labour opponents of the runway, particularly London MPs, that he will have a further meeting with them before any announcement is made.
But no amount of meetings can hide the fundamental disagreement between those like the Prime Minister who see expansion in terms of jobs and economic growth, and members of his own Cabinet who would find it difficult to promote the party's green credentials alongside such a significant expansion in aviation.
There may well be new environmental safeguards imposed on the new runway but they would be unlikely to win over opponents, while the overall effect of increased carbon emissions would damage the credibility of the Government's own targets.
Certainly, a new runway would create new jobs.
But the reality is that Mr Brown may not be in power for much more than a year; any contractor would hesitate to undertake long-term commitments for a third runway given that the Tories and the Lib-Dems are opposed to it. Political reality may prove to be the real obstacle to Heathrow's expansion.
Gold-star teachers
ONE OF the single greatest obstacles to raising standards in schools in deprived areas is the high turnover in teaching staff. It is not merely that rough schools find it, for obvious reasons, more difficult to attract good staff; they also find it harder to retain them. The result is that in many cases, teachers are giving classes in subjects for which they are unqualified.
The Government's new initiative, then, to pay teachers £10,000 to remain for three years in some of the worst schools is eminently sensible.
Headteachers will be given discretion as to which teachers to attract with the new golden handcuffs: this, too, is a useful increase in their autonomy.
The question is whether even this package, which includes additional training, will be enough to keep teachers in tough schools, given that advertised pay of up to £100,000 for headteachers is proving insufficient to fill some posts.
Schools will also have to find half of the money themselves. But it is, at least, a useful additional measure to help schools get the staff they need to raise standards.
And celebrating...
STATION STAFF. To his great credit, the Minister of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, has told South West Trains that its plans drastically to scale back the manning of station ticket offices are unacceptable. The operator was intending to withdraw staff from 84 stations over weekends and to reduce weekend opening hours. But cutting back on staff is massively unpopular with passengers. Lord Adonis's decision is in their interests.
