Gloucestershire Airport is held to ransom

April 11, 2009
Glouces­ter­shire Air­port was plunged into dark­ness as envi­ron­men­tal cam­paign­ers stole lights in protest against a new green pol­i­cy.

Cam­paign­ers from Plane Stu­pid say they are hold­ing a set of hi-tech solar pow­ered lights to ran­som until the air­port becomes more eco-friend­ly.

Kevin Lis­ter from the protest group said: “We have stolen the pho­to­volta­ic lights from the sign at the air­port.

“These lights high­light the stu­pid­i­ty of the council’s posi­tion with the air­port.

“The idea that fit­ting eco-friend­ly lights at the air­port can off­set the huge envi­ron­men­tal dam­age that the planes will cause is an insult to those of us that care.”

The cam­paign­ers sprang into action after Glouces­ter City Council’s Overview and Scruti­ny Man­age­ment com­mit­tee agreed to rec­om­mend the airport’s green pol­i­cy to cab­i­net at a meet­ing on Thurs­day.

In a ran­som note sent by email to local coun­cil­lors and air­port head of oper­a­tions Dar­ren Lew­ing­ton, Kevin apol­o­gised for hold­ing the envi­ron­men­tal­ly-friend­ly lights hostage, and stat­ed his terms.

The state­ment said: “We will hand them (the lights) back once the tar­gets in the green man­age­ment plan are set in accor­dance with the lat­est sci­ence, which demands that we imme­di­ate­ly move to a zero-car­bon econ­o­my, and when there is a cat­e­gor­i­cal agree­ment that if the air­port breach­es the lim­its, oper­a­tions will cease for the mea­sure­ment peri­od.”

Mr Lew­ing­ton said: “First of all, I would like to say the air­port is very pleased that both the Glouces­ter and Chel­tenham com­mit­tees have endorsed the pol­i­cy, and I hope their cab­i­nets will fol­low suit.

“It’s dis­ap­point­ing that Kevin has tak­en this par­tic­u­lar action. This is theft and crim­i­nal dam­age, and those are the plain facts for Plane Stu­pid.

“The green pol­i­cy is very much a work­ing doc­u­ment and it’s not appro­pri­ate at this stage to include the demands that Kevin has made.

“It’s ear­ly days and the doc­u­ment will evolve, but this stunt is, in my per­son­al opin­ion, a bit inap­pro­pri­ate.”

Glouces­ter City Coun­cil leader Paul James respond­ed to Kevin’s actions, brand­ing them “irre­spon­si­ble.”

He said: “We can’t con­done break­ing the law, which is what this is.

“I do have respect for peo­ple who want to make sure the air­port is envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly, but this isn’t the best way to go about it.

“The best thing for him to do would be to work with us and co-oper­ate, rather than show­ing a con­tempt for democ­ra­cy.”

Cam­paign­ers from Plane Stu­pid say they are hold­ing a set of hi-tech solar pow­ered lights to ran­som until the air­port becomes more eco-friend­ly.