Join protest on Monday against Airport expansion

Any folk out there in Gloucestershire want to join a small friendly protest in Gloucester on Monday 3rd March against the planned Airport expansion - details below along with your last cahnce to submit something to Heathrow consultation and other bits re Airports.

Photo: Crow in neighbours garden

STAVERTON ACTION: Airport Expansion Plans Make No Sense! Sometimes common sense is a scarce commodity at our local City Hall. With the Council set to approve expansion of Staverton airport it looks like common sense is taking an extended holiday! This sad situation needs fixing so campaigners will be holding a candle lit vigil for the restoration of common sense. We will present Councillors with elegantly wrapped gifts of common sense with messages concerning the Airport plan. Messages like:
- More and bigger planes is definitely expansion so let's stop pretending that the Airport development is a safety project
- By signing the Nottingham Declaration the Council committed itself to reducing carbon emissions but the Airport is heading in the opposite direction. Isn’t that rather stupid?

I have just heard today that the Airport part of the meeting will now be held in secret - public and press not allowed. This is indeed strange and there seems little justification if any for such a move - more worrying still is that Cabinet and Full Council meet soon after so a decision could be made within 10 days - please join us!

Details: Where: Outside the coming meeting of the Gloucester City Council scrutiny committee (rubber stamping committee?). The Airport plan is on the agenda for 'debate' at the Council Chamber, North Warehouse, The Docks, Gloucester. When: From 6:00pm on Monday 3rd March. Background info on why Airport should not expand: see campaigners (if I may say so excellent) response to the Joint Airport Scrutiny Working Group report at:
http://tinyurl.com/2ythce

HEATHROW LAST CHANCE TO MAKE SUBMISSION: We have until midnight Wednesday - tomorrow - to oppose the expansion of Heathrow airport. I will enclose link to Caroline Lucas' submission for those who may want ideas. Please send your protest to: heathrowconsultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk

Green Party Principal Speaker Dr. Caroline Lucas has submitted damning evidence to the Government's consultation on the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport, and today labelled the plans for a third runway as ‘irresponsible, deceptive and environmentally disastrous’. In her consultation response, Dr Lucas condemns the proposals, citing the devastating effects on climate change, noise and air pollution, as well as risks to public safety that would be caused by expanding Heathrow capacity from 430,000 flights to between 700,000 and 800,000 flights per year. She goes on to criticise the "flawed" and 'leading' methods of the public consultation, accusing the Government of continuously 'moving the goalposts' in their arguments. See full submission here:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3337

OTHER HEATHROW STUFF:

Virgin poll removed: I was going to also circulate a poll being carried out by Virgin Atlantic to encourage support for Heathrow expansion - it seems to have backfired with 87% voting against expansion and they have just now removed the poll! See here.

Greenpeace action yesterday: Also yesterday you may have heard that four Greenpeace campaigners watched a plane land at Heathrow - one of the 32 daily flights between Heathrow and Manchester. As soon as the passengers had disembarked, they walked through the double doors at Terminal One, crossed the tarmac, climbed onto the fuselage and hung a banner reading "CLIMATE EMERGENCY - NO 3rd RUNWAY" across the plane's tailfin. The campaigners have now all been arrested. Read the full story here.

Other actions: Write to Gordon Brown asking him to get serious about climate change and stop Heathrow expansion - see here. Join Greenpeace Stop Heathrow Expansion Facebook group here. And SW Air Action here.