It seems like that we have been doing the Airplot campaign forever, trying to stop the expansion of Heathrow Airport. It has been one of the longest continuous campaigns we as a group have taken part in and it has been a hard slog. Many of us felt Airplotted out. So todays news makes it all worth while.
In January the group looked back at the year of Airplotting and added up everything that had gone on, not just in Nottingham but across the country in terms of people signed up to become beneficial owners of the plot, media, celebrities, apple tree planting and the list goes on. Today has definitely been a day worth waiting for.
Greenpeace with local campaigners and other environmental groups called for a judicial review on the whole of the Governments case for expansion and that case was found wanting.
The judge called the Governments decision "untenable in law and common sense" and that the 2003 Aviation White Paper, on which the Government based its expansion plans, was obsolete because it was inconsistent with the Climate Change Act 2008. He said that if the Government wanted to push ahead with airport expansion it must consider climate change as well as economic issues and infrastructure issues on how to get people to the airport. Did they really not consider the implications for the Picadilly line?
I must add here a thanks to Friends of the Earth who put in a longer and harder slog to get the Climate Change Act into law. All major developments will have to be considered in line with this Act which is, in the words of the judge, a significant development in climate change policy.
What this shows is that Governments and corporations don't have it all their own ways. We can win and we will win.
Onwards and upwards comrades.
Comments