Manchester Airport and Heathrow residents join forces

Sun­day 7th Feb­ru­ary 2010
Res­i­dents and cam­paign­ers against the expan­sion of Man­ches­ter and Heathrow air­ports have joined forces in a show of sol­i­dar­i­ty between both places threat­ened by air­port expan­sion. Around 80 peo­ple turned out for the launch of the ‘Adopt-a-Res­i­dent’ scheme on Hasty Lane which involved cam­paign­ers from across Man­ches­ter and across the coun­try pledg­ing to sup­port the res­i­dents in their bat­tle to save their hous­es and that if it came to it – to take direct action against the bull­doz­ers try­ing to demol­ish their homes.

Peter John­son and daugh­ter Hol­ly John­son host­ed the event in front of their house. They were joined by Tra­cy Howard – a res­i­dent from Sip­son, as well John Stew­art, Chair of Air­port­Watch, and activists from Stop Expan­sion at Man­ches­ter Air­port (SEMA) coali­tion and Plane Stu­pid.

The day also involved a vis­it to the near­by 300 year old nat­ur­al pond and home to endan­gered Great Crest­ed Newts.

SEMA spokesper­son Sian Jones said: “The res­i­dents aren’t alone in this — cli­mate jus­tice cam­paign­ers from across Man­ches­ter and the coun­try are back­ing them all the way.”

Hasty Lane res­i­dent Peter John­son said: “Togeth­er with Sip­son res­i­dents, we are going to fight these irre­spon­si­ble and unnec­es­sary plans. Our local coun­cil­lors all opposed the plans, but they were over­ruled. The coun­cil has let us down, but we’re not going to give up that eas­i­ly.”

Sip­son res­i­dent Tra­cy Howard, 35, who made the trip up north for the twin­ning event said: “The sto­ry of Hasty lane is a way too famil­iar sto­ry to ours. Local com­mu­ni­ties suf­fer­ing from a big air­port that is destroy­ing our homes, our health and the cli­mate. If a 3rd run­way at Heathrow is built I face los­ing my home, my job and my grandmother’s grave will be dug up. This is why I have been adopt­ed by a Plane Stu­pid activist as there direct action tac­tics could be all we have left.”

PRESS COVERAGE
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BBC Web­site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8502871.stm

Man­ches­ter Evening News report
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1191887_tea_party_protest_over_airport_extension_plan

Back­ground infor­ma­tion
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In Novem­ber 2009, Man­ches­ter City Coun­cil approved plans to bull­doze
peo­ple’s homes on Hasty Lane to expand the World Freight Cen­tre at
Man­ches­ter Air­port. This over­turned the deci­sion by local coun­cil­lors from the Wythen­shawe Area Com­mit­tee, who reject­ed the Air­port’s plans.

Man­ches­ter Air­port is one of the region’s biggest pol­luters (2.5 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 annu­al­ly, based on depart­ing flights only). Yet it was recent­ly omit­ted from Man­ches­ter City Coun­cil’s Cli­mate Change Action Plan ( http://www.manchesterclimate.com/)

Man­ches­ter City Coun­cil own 55% of Man­ches­ter Air­ports Group – which also owns Bournemouth, Hum­ber­side and Not­ting­ham East Mid­lands Air­port.

Man­ches­ter Air­port was recent­ly reject­ed from the 10:10 cam­paign.
http://stopmanchesterairport.blogspot.com/2009/11/manchester-airport-rejected-from-1010.html

For more infor­ma­tion, see:
http://www.stopmanchesterairport.org.uk