Reports of Further Delay in Third Runway Decision

It was widely expected that the Government was to announce its decision on a third runway at Heathrow this week. There are newspaper reports that after protests from Labour MPs the Prime Minister may delay any announcement once again. These are unconfirmed reports and so may be only speculation. As soon as I know anything for certain I will be convening meetings across the area to let local people know and for us to plan our response as a community.

In the meantime I attended the demonstration by protesters aginst the 3rd Runway in Terminal one this evening. The peaceful protest was in the form of over 500 people turning up in Edwardian costume to have a picnic with music and singing in the terminal. the protest went off very well and gained a great deal of media coverage. This allows us to get our arguments against the runway across using the media effectively.

In addition along with many others I have become an owner of a piece of land which lies in the path of the proposed runway. The environmental group, Greenpeace, has bought the land and asked a number of MPs, celebrities and environmentalists to become the official owners of the land. This will throw another spanner in the works of BAA’s attempts to force through Heathrow expansion.

It is becoming increasingly evident now that the 3rd Runway will not go ahead because of the scale of opposition no matter what the Government announces.

submitted by John on 12 Jan 2009 at 23:32