Heathrow residents disrupt minister’s speech

6.03.2007

ANGRY HEATHROW RESIDENTS DISRUPT MINISTER’S SPEECH

~ Air­port res­i­dents resort to direct action tech­niques for the first time
~ Marks new phase in resis­tance to air­port expan­sion


6.03.2007

ANGRY HEATHROW RESIDENTS DISRUPT MINISTER’S SPEECH

~ Air­port res­i­dents resort to direct action tech­niques for the first time
~ Marks new phase in resis­tance to air­port expan­sion

1pm — Lon­don­ers fac­ing house demo­li­tions and increased noise from gov­ern­ment plans for expan­sion of Heathrow today took direct action against the plans for the first time. They stormed the stage at an avi­a­tion indus­try con­fer­ence and dis­rupt­ed an address being made by the Trans­port Min­is­ter, Dou­glas Alexan­der.

The res­i­dents from the West Lon­don vil­lages of Sip­son and Har­mondsworth joined envi­ron­men­tal activists from cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid, and breached secu­ri­ty at Chatham House. Some unfurled a ban­ner read­ing, “No third run­way” whilst anoth­er went nose-to-nose with the Min­is­ter in front of the con­fer­ence del­e­gates. Oth­er res­i­dents with ban­ners demon­strat­ed out­side the con­fer­ence cen­tre.

Local res­i­dent Dr John Hunt from Houn­slow who went head-to-head with Alexan­der on the stage, said, “For decades the gov­ern­ment has betrayed us with a cat­a­logue of bro­ken promis­es. In the 80s we were told Ter­mi­nal 4 would be the last expan­sion, then in the 90s we were told Ter­mi­nal 5 would be the end. Now we’re fac­ing yet more noise and more con­crete, and this time they want to wipe our entire com­mu­ni­ty off the map. The time for gen­tle per­sua­sion is over. Dou­glas Alexan­der is warned: the fight back has begun.”

He added, “We’re glad to be joined by our eco-war­rior friends from Plane Stu­pid. They’ve done this kind of thing before and have been help­ful with their direct action train­ing over recent weeks. I think it’s safe to say there’s more of this to come.”

Plane Stu­pid shot into the head­lines with their block­ade of an air­port run­way at Not­ting­ham East Mid­lands short haul air­port in Sep­tem­ber. The group have also occu­pied BAA and Easy­jet offices in recent months, and organ­ised November’s nation­al day of action against short haul flights.

Plane Stupid’s Richard George said, “Whist Min­is­ters like Dou­glas Alexan­der preach about action to stop cli­mate change they’re con­cret­ing over local demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­si­tion to new run­ways with their plans to cater for unnec­es­sary and cli­mate-wreck­ing short haul flights. It’s not sur­pris­ing that hav­ing failed though con­ven­tion­al protest, the res­i­dents have decid­ed to up the ante.”

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