Heathrow decision: 12:30 tomorrow

By Richard on 14/01/2009
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Heathrow decision

After months of dithering, Geoff Hoon and Gordon Brown are a mere 18 hours away from making their decision on Heathrow. In a move bound to shock absolutely no one, they'll give the go ahead for expansion.

Top secret sources inside the Westminster bubble have exclusively revealed (probably through an embargoed press release) that the announcement will be made just after lunch. Expect lots of talk of strict environmental limits, watchdogs, high-speed rail, the emissions trading scheme and all sorts of other nonsense.

Sod it: let the aviation industry have its moment of glory. We all know that no one is going to be building any runways near London any time soon. Not at Stansted, not at Gatwick, not at Luton and certainly not at Heathrow. If you haven't signed up to own a few blades of grass under the runway, then visit the Greenpeace Artport! website quickly.

Frankfurt airport: we will defend every tree and every hut

By Anonymous on 13/01/2009
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Liselotte

Lord Soley and his chums at BAA are fond of saying that if we don't expand Heathrow everyone will just fly from Frankfurt or Schipol. Not without a fight they won't. Frankfurt is the second largest airport in Europe; Fraport (who own the airport) and the German government are trying to build a new runway to massively increase capacity.

The only problem is the 250,000 m2 of protected forest that cheekily grew where they want to plonk the tarmac. For seven months activists have been squatting the forest, building tree platforms and floating rafts to resist attempts to chop down the forest. The protestors have vowed to defend every tree and every hut. Some of them have a history of anti-expansion protests: twenty five years ago there was a massive site battle over the second runway. Then the German Government swore there wouldn't be any more runways. Where have we heard that before?

January 2009 is bringing threat of eviction - and they need all the help they can get. If you're kicking about and fancy building some metaphorical bridges, why not head over? There's more background info and directions to the camp on their website (in english), and a whole bunch of pretty photos as well. Bus tickets to Frankfurt via Eurolines are about 50 quid.

Airplot! Greenpeace buys land to scupper third runway

By Richard on 13/01/2009
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Airplot

Psst... want to own a piece of West London? Pop over to Greenpeace and sign up to Airplot!: the latest ploy to monkeywrench the Government's plans for Heathrow expansion. They've purchased a couple of acres of land in the middle of the area designated for the third runway, and are doling it out to anyone who fancies becoming a member of the propertied classes.

I've signed up, as have most of Plane Stupid, tons of environmentalists, a few journalists and Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MPs. The plot has been turned into a giant banner visible from the air, with the words 'Our Climate, Our Land' written on it in chalk. By slicing and dicing this patch of earth Greenpeace plans to disrupt the compulsory purchase order process (where the State decides it's having your land, whether you want to sell it to them or not).

It's a tried-and-tested method, pioneered by an anti-roads group in the 1980s. Wheatley Friends of the Earth, fighting the construction of the M40 through Oxfordshire, sold off portions of Alice's Meadow - so-named because it inspired sections of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. What Greenpeace have planned is slightly different, but no doubt equally effective. I can't wait to head over to my new patch of dirt and start digging a tunnel - first one to Australia wins a free BAA t-shirt!

Last minute Cabinet rebellion may delay Heathrow announcement

By Richard on 13/01/2009
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Climate Rush 1

As MPs returned from their long winter breaks the Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has been hard at work making sure that they don't get a say on Heathrow expansion. With 57 confirmed Labour rebels and strong opposition from the Lib Dems and Conservatives a vote on expansion would get defeated pretty heavily, so Hoon was planning to announce expansion this week: too quick for the Tories to schedule a vote.

It's a risky game. Hoon is gambling that Labour rebels - who might vote against expansion to influence an as-yet-unmade decision - won't want to side with the opposition if the decision has already been made. Unsurprisingly MPs with legitimate concerns about NOx levels, CO2 emissions, noise, increase traffic, the destruction of Sipson, etc, etc, are none best pleased by all this manipulation, and have launched a last-ditch attempt to make Hoon see sense. They've demanding reassurance that Heathrow won't be allowed to expand if it harms the environment.

The decision could be delayed until the end of the month. Hoon needs his Cabinet colleagues behind him, but what promises can he actually make? BAA won't limit capacity: it's already cramming planes into every nook and cranny. Expansion can't be done within the "strict, local, environmental limits" - as EU Environment chief Stavros Dimas warned last year. Does anyone really believe that this Government would lie to us over the consultation, turn Sipson into rubble and then turn around and ban any increase in flights because they're suddenly worried about the planet?

Scottish Government slips Prestwick and Aberdeen expansion under the radar

By Anonymous on 23/12/2008
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Prestwick airport

Planestupid Scotland recently discovered that the Scottish national planning framework - which completely failed to consult the general public despite a period of consultation - now includes plans to expand Prestwick and Aberdeen airports. The Scottish Government now plans to expand four airports in a country of just over 5 million people - pure dead ecological madness.

Prestwick airport predicts that passenger numbers will more than double in the next ten years, rising as high as 12 million passengers by 2033. BAA also plans to increase Aberdeen's contribution to climate change to 5.9 million passengers / year by 2030. The recent road transport strategy also called for massive investment in roads at the expense of much needed public transport services. So much for much-hyped plans to reduce CO2 emissions - the Scottish Exec is determined to set runaway climate change into the tarmac.

With climate concerns are off the radar the only thing BAA has left to ruin are the lives of communities surrounding the four airports. The operator claims to care about the community: BAA Aberdeen are proud to have “a strong commitment to the communities around our airport and aim to address issues of prime local concern.” If that commitment includes disruption of school classes every five minutes, massive increases in air pollution and reduction in housing prices at a time of economic recession then BAA Aberdeen is doing a sterling job already - even without all their planned expansion.

Cabinet split growing: MPs demand a vote on Heathrow

By Richard on 19/12/2008
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Airbus over houses

When Governments face rebellion in the back benches, they traditionally defer whatever is causing the problem. This buys them enough time to offer out peerages and cushy jobs to the rebels, defusing enough of the protest to win a vote when the division bell sounds. But Transport Secretary Geoff 'Buff' Hoon may live to regret delaying the Heathrow decision, because this rebellion shows no sign of dying out.

West London Labour MPs who recognise they'll get a kicking in the next election (and a fair few who would benefit from high-speed rail) are now demanding a vote in the Commons - and the Tories or Lib Dems may be able to provide one. Senior Cabinet Ministers are now openly briefing against expansion, concerned that the "strict, local environmental limits" will be broken. BAA even tried to talk up an independent board to analyse the airport's eco-impact, only to be laughed off the Today programme.

The latest plan is to scrap the runway and opt for mixed-mode; such a political option. Mixed-mode - where the airport uses both runways for take-offs and landings - is not as sexy as the destruction of an ancient village, and there would not be as many extra flights. But it's still nonsense. It really doesn't matter whether your emissions come from new runways or old ones; what matters is whether they are increasing or not. Mixed-mode will increase emissions, so it must be sent packing - along with any residual plans to build another runway.