Local people join Stephen Tindale, director Greenpeace (far right), George Marshall of Rising Tide (2nd right) and campaigns director of Friends of the Earth (Liana Stupples, 4th right) at the launch of the pledge to resist airport expansion
PRESSURE groups are stepping up their campaign to stop airport expansion at Heathrow.
Groups in the borough, including Heathrow pressure group HACAN ClearSkies, have linked up with Britain's leading transport and environmental organisations to call on the public to pledge their support to resist airport expansion as part of a campaign launched on Friday.
The anti-airport expansion pledge is being backed by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, People and Planet, Rising Tide and Transport 2000, together with HACAN ClearSkies and Swansea Airport No Expansion.
Tens of thousands of copies of the pledge will be distributed to groups and individuals across the country. People will be invited to sign up, pledging themselves to take personal action to resist airport expansion. Personal action could include anything from setting up local campaigns to taking part in non-violent direct action.
The pledge is a response to the Government's Aviation White Paper launched last December.
The White Paper forecast a near-trebling of passengers using UK airports over the next 30 years and predicted there could be runways built at Stansted, Heathrow or Gatwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as significant expansion at most of the UK's other airports.
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John Stewart, chairman of HACAN ClearSkies and one of the organisers of the pledge, said: "Local communities are angry and becoming desperate. They feel the Government is not listening. Airport expansion means more flights, more noise, more pollution. I expect that local people will rush to sign this pledge."
George Marshall of Rising Tide, who administered the pledge, said; "We expect a huge number of people will sign the pledge. There is widespread anger at the Government's aggressive plans to expand airports. It is inconceivable that people will sit back and let this happen. If the Government does not listen, I think protest, including direct action, is inevitable."
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