Camp Hope success

It seems clear from the people who joined the camp that it was a big success in raising awareness. Some 100 people on the Saturday and 30 camping the night - TV crews and journalists - I know Greens who went are writing letters to the local press as a follow up.

Photos: The Citizen had a good article with photos of Gloucester and Cheltenham Green party members supporting the demo - below is the leaflet handed out to the airport.

Kevin Lister, one of the key organisers of the Camp, is to be applauded for his energy and passion at getting this issue onto the agenda - see his letter here to the airport management praising them for their approach to the Camp but also strongly disagreeing with them about their conclusions. It is at least welcomed that the Airport has reversed their opinion on climate change and now accept that it is a real concern.

It was also interesting to hear about the anger of some locals to the airport - as Kevin notes in his letter one Staverton resident told about how every second house in his street seems to have a cancer victim - even if this is an exaggeration it is deeply worrying - I had not been aware of this additional issue - but apparently this would concur with research which shows cancer clusters around airports - see http://www.areco.org/ExpAir.pdf

While cancer is another aspect around the airport growth, the issue around climate change remains the most important - unless we can act on this then we are in serious trouble as this blog keeps saying!

I wrote this week another letter on aviation - this time to the Local Government Association weekly mag to all councillors - there had been yet another article singing the praises of expanding regional airports - see my letter here.