Climate campaigners hang 'NO 3rd RUNWAY' banner before PMQs - 27th February 2008

Campaigners opposed to Heathrow expansion have scaled the roof of the Houses of Parliament and hung protest banners from the building before Prime Minister's Questions is due to begin.

The three men and two women from climate action group, Plane Stupid, opened an outside door before walking along the roof and dropping two banners. The non-violent direct action comes on the day a government consultation into Heathrow expansion ends. The protesters are making paper aeroplanes out of confidential Whitehall documents that reveal the process is fixed, and gliding the planes into the MPs' car park below.

The documents – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act - prove that airport operator BAA wrote parts of the consultation document and that the government has already decided to build a 3rd runway and 6th terminal at the world's biggest international airport.

One of the banners, facing Parliament Square, brands the House of Commons 'BAA HQ' while the other says 'NO 3rd RUNWAY'. Richard George, 27, from London is on the roof. He said:

"I'm standing on the roof of Parliament because the democratic process has been corrupted. The aviation industry has taken full advantage of a weak Prime Minister to get the Heathrow consultation fixed. It doesn't even consider global warming, despite everything Brown has said about the environment and despite the massive impact that aviation has on the climate."

He continued:

"This Prime Minister doesn't even have the courage to ask Londoners the very simple question, do you want a third runway? Instead his government published a consultation document full of gobbledygook and industry spin. Now the consultation is over we can safely ignore the fixed result and get on with the job of stopping this new runway being built. A huge coalition of local residents, Londoners and environmentalists is coming together, supported by all the major mayoral candidates, to stand against Gordon Brown and say 'no more'."

BAA and Brown want to see a sixth terminal and third runway built over homes, schools and churches in the villages of Sipson and Harmondsworth. This would increase the number of flights from 480,000 a year to at least 702,000. Two million Londoners face increased levels of noise, while CO2 emissions from the airport would shoot up despite claims by Brown that he's committed to fighting climate change.

The rooftop occupation comes two days after Greenpeace protesters scaled an Airbus A320 which had just touched down at Heathrow from Manchester.

The protesters have branded Parliament 'BAA HQ' because of the extraordinary level of collusion between the aviation industry and government. Secret documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation reveal the existence of a previously unknown body called the 'Heathrow Delivery Group' – comprised of government and BAA officials. The group is charged with getting the new runway through the consultation process and neutralising 'risks' to the project such as Londoners who oppose Brown's aviation policy.

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Plane Stupid press phone:

* Rev Malcolm Carroll on 07982 205871 / Leila Dean on 07847 204469

Notes:

The Whitehall documents can be viewed at www.greenpeace.org.uk/baa. The documents reveal close links between BAA and the Department of Transport, working together to influence the outcome of the consultation, including: Extraordinary collusion between BAA and the government. They have set up a joint body - the Heathrow Delivery Group - aimed at steering the plans through the consultation process; BAA officials have written parts of the consultation; BAA supplied the data for calculations of noise and pollution that inform the premise of the consultation document. Opposition groups have not been permitted to challenge the data; The Department for Transport and BAA have drawn up a 'risk list' - a list of threats to the building of the 3rd runway. The list includes the 2M campaign, the group comprising councils representing 2 million people that is opposed to the plans.

Labour/industry revolving door: Trade minister Sir Digby Jones is the former CBI boss who became chair of the new aviation industry lobby group, Flying Matters. The group was recently formed to take on environmentalists over airport expansion. Gordon Brown also appointed Joe Irvin, formerly a director of the aviation lobby group Freedom to Fly, to become one of his inner circle of advisors too. Freedom to Fly was the brainchild of Steve Hardwick - another of Labour's key Millbank apparatchiks – while the organisation was previously chaired by Labour peer Brenda Dean and directed by Dan Hodges, the son of Glenda Jackson who was Labour's first aviation minister. Dan Hodge's wife, Michelle De Leo, is the new director of Flying Matters.

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, the bete noir of climate campaigners, is far from a stranger to BAA either. In fact, he was the guest of honour who officially launched a group called Future Heathrow, who are lobbying for a third runway and a sixth terminal at the airport. Future Heathrow, is headed up by another Labour peer, Lord Soley, who works out of a BAA office in West London. BAA's new communications chief is former Downing Street spin doctor Tom Kelly.