FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday 6 October 2003
Activists occupy T5 crane in protest against
Heathrow expansion

7 members of Hounslow Against New Terminals (HANT) - a
coalition of local residents
and anti-airport expansion activists have today
occupied a crane on the site
of Heathrow's Terminal 5.

HANT are protesting the government's aggressive
airport expansion programme,
a policy being pursued against the advice of
analysts, MPs and local communities.

Construction of T5 had just begun, earlier this
year, when BAA proposed to press
ahead with a sixth terminal and third runway,
despite previous assurances to local
MPs and communities that expansion would stop with
Terminal 5.

The protesters fear devastation of local
communities, including:

. the poisoning of 35,000 local people with
unacceptable levels of nitrogen dioxide in
a London borough - Hounslow - already one of the
most polluted in the UK.

. The loss of up to 10,000 homes and demolition of
schools, churches and community
centres in the four surrounding villages

. The loss of 230 hectares of green belt, and with
it destruction of habitat for rare local
water voles and nesting birds

. Increased local incidence of cancer, asthma and
other respiratory ailments from
airport pollutants.

Local MP John McDonnell said:

"BAA's proposals for a new runway and a sixth
terminal will wipe out the villages of
Harmondsworth and Sipson totally. Longford and
Harlington will become so heavily
polluted by poisonous gases and noise that they will
become uninhabitable.

"Communities which have existed for nearly a
thousand years will be broken up and
razed from the face of the earth. This is nothing
less than a forced migration of whole
communities similar to the threat of the Kurdish
people when the Turkish government
sought to flood their homes and villages in the
construction of the Illisu dam."

A report from the Institution of Public Policy
Research earlier this year stated
'That Government must understand the climate change
impact of future aviation
growth.Other industries are already footing the
bill. The aviation industry is
outside that. Other industries are effectively
subsidising aviation."

HANT activist Colin said:

"We are occupying this crane indefinitely because if
BAA gets its way, our community
will pay with the loss of our homes, schools and
health. We are
sick of corporate greed bulldozing the needs of our
population."

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Hacan ClearSkies comments:

"Although HACAN ClearSkies is not involved in
this protest our comment would be: "We fully
understand why people are taking direct action.
People around Heathrow feel that all they have had
from successive governments is a serious of broken
promises. The Government has only listened to the
siren calls of the aviation industry for ever more
expansion. Perhaps the voice from the top of the
crane will make them sit up and take notice."
 http://www.hacan.org.uk