Grow Heathrow ready for take off
Beginning our new project on the first day in March was always going to be tricky, but even Spring was on side. For Transition Heathrow's latest project we've gone back to the land, turning a neglected scrap in the heart of the third runway into a thriving market garden for the community.
After the successful site take on the Monday, in which about 20 people secured our new site, we spent an intense week in the sun clearing and cleaning up the mess left behind by previous tenants. The amount of rubbish was monumental, but by the weekend we felt ready to open the gates and welcomed in the community.
The support we've had from the local community, and particularly from those on whose doorsteps we've set up, has been staggering. We posted a wish list of stuff we needed and by the weekend had mostly fulfilled it. From food parcels to blankets, we've been supremely well looked after by our new neighbours.
Over the weekend an incredible mix of people came together and spent two days in the glorious sunshine restoring the greenhouses to their former glory. It's hard to describe just how positive the atmosphere was, especially when people were primarily clearing rubbish. We had kids painting tyres to grow potatoes in; mass raking to clear up the broken glass and bender building to establish a beautiful shelter for our front gate. By the end of the weekend we were all exhausted, but exhilarated, by the amount we'd managed to achieve in such a short space of time.
This project is definitely a good antidote for anyone feeling overwhelmed post-Copenhagen, or depressed after reading 1,000 comments on the Guardian dissing climate science. Making a tangible difference in a community that has been blighted for so many years by the overhanging threat of airport expansion is wonderfully empowering, and there's plenty for people to do to get their hands dirty.
As a good friend of ours said about the project, "people should stop talking about the resistance, and come here and live it instead."
For more information email info@transitionheathrow.com or if you want to come and join us for a day's work call the site phone on 07890751568.
