A full house of over 800 people in Richmond Theatre saw the ‘NO IFS; NO BUTS’ film win the competition. The short film captured the devastating effects of a third Heathrow runway in a very clear and effective way.
Entrants were asked to submit a two-minute film to show why expansion at Heathrow should not go ahead. More than 50 films were entered and the audience saw a shortlist of 15. Those were reduced to a top 3 by the judges. The audience made the final decision.
The judges and the audience were astonished by the quality and quantity of the entries.
Interestingly, none were about the option of spreading economic and aviation growth around the SouthEast (expanding Gatwick and/or making better use of Stansted) or the rest of the UK (direct flights, less talk about hubs)) and nothing about a new airport.
Some problems with a third Heathrow runway
The videos superbly highlighted the numerous problems and errors with a third Heathrow runway, including:
- noise
- pollution
- traffic congestion in all of West London
- destruction of houses, villages, churches, life
Read more about the problems with a third Heathrow runway.
The top 3 were in order:
Judges
The three judges were:
- Hugh Grant – Golden Globe Award-winning actor, West London resident
didn’t seem to know why he was there, funny, charming but no use, bit of a dud really
- Holly Willoughby – television presenter, lives under the Heathrow flight path
excellent, she looked at each video and summarised superbly, engaged well with audience
- Rachel Johnson – West London resident, editor, journalist, television presenter and author
a good judge, knew some of the issues, engaged well with audience
Reasons for the competition
The event was organised by Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith (Conservative Party) and Hacan chairman John Stewart.
The current UK Prime Minister, David Cameron (Conservative Party) told Richmond residents there would be no third runway at Heathrow. He said the words “no ifs, no buts, no third runway” at a meeting in Richmond when he was leader of the opposition.
At that time, October 2009, the Richmond MP was a Liberal Democrats and Mr Cameron needed to win the seat to help him become Prime Minister.
In May 2010, Mr Cameron became Prime Minister of a coalition government.
In September 2012 he established the Airports Commission to examine the need for additional UK airport capacity and recommend to government how this can be met in the short, medium and long term.
Mr Cameron also recommended that he gets the recommendations after the next UK election. It is unlikely he will be Prime Minister then.
