Remember the Paper plane flashmob outside the Department of Transport? Looks like it might have finally woken Ruth Kelly up to the deluge of NOs that have been levelled at her ridiculous expansion proposals and has prompted her to delay a decision on the plans. Obviously she hasn't read the messages thoroughly or else she'd have scrapped plans for expanding Heathrow altogether.
Ruth Kelly announced this week that a decision was being delayed in order to fully check the 70,000 responses received as part of their sham consultation and to conduct an equalities impact assessment to take account of views of various ethnic communities living in the Heathrow area. But why didn't the government conduct an equal and fair consultation first time around? Maybe corporate interests of BAA and BA are of special importance to the Department of Transport, that's why.
The government is on shaky grounds with its Heathrow expansion plans thanks to the efforts of the growing coalition of anti-aviation campaigners, our Big NO, the Terminal 5 flashmob and several other actions. We must keep up the pressure to stop Ruth Kelly deciding "before the end of the year" on the future of Heathrow development. We seem to be winning the argument against expanding Heathrow, now we must keep up the pressure to make sure the decision they make is the right one.
Join Greenpeace and come to the Climate Camp Heathrow conference to discuss where we go next. And watch this space for more stuff to come and keep up the good work.
