Environmental activists caused disruption at Heathrow during rush hour.
Campaigners from Plane Stupid, a group opposed to expansion at Heathrow, parked a van across both lanes of the tunnel and locked themselves to it.
The group said three of its members parked the van across the tunnel at 7.40am and unfurled a banner quoting David Cameron’s election promise: “No ifs, no buts: no third runway.”
The tunnel was closed for about four hours.
Cameron Kaye, a spokesman for Plane Stupid, said the protest was being staged to draw attention to concerns about the impact a third runway will have on the environment.
Local resident Neil Keveren, a builder whose village, Harmondsworth, would be bulldozed for the third runway, arrived later at the tunnel.
He said:
“No one wants to do this. They feel they have to. People feel they have no choice. After we campaigned for years, David Cameron was elected promising ‘no ifs, no buts: no third runway’. In 2010 the High Court ruled third runway plans “untenable in law and common sense” because they breached the Climate Change Act. Now Cameron might just build it anyway. We have tried every other option. We have been forced to be disobedient just to be heard. To save our homes and our planet.”
Plane Stupid spokesperson Cameron Kaye said:
“Airport expansion would wreck the legally binding Climate Change Act, risking wiping out 55% of species this century and displacing 75 million more people from their homes by 2035. If aviation growth isn’t reduced, by 2037 aviation alone could emit all of the carbon it’s safe for the UK to emit. The government needs to choose: build new runways or stop climate chaos: it’s that simple.”
N.B. Image credit: planestupid.com
Internet links
Aviation Environment Federation, 16 June 2015, ‘All set for take off? Aviation emissions to soar under Airports Commission proposals’, p.1, http://www.aef.org.uk/uploads/All-set-for-take-off-AEF-report.pdf
