• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Bulletin No 36 July 2010 From the Chairman, John Stewart It is becoming clear that the new Government is moving away from the aggressively expansionist aviation policy pursued by Labour. Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Transport, was quoted in the Financial Times as saying he would like to see domestic flights become a thing of the past. This provoked the predictable outrage from the aviation industry. It is surely a sign that the political ground is moving. The Labour Government was in bed with the aviation industry. What now seems to be happening is that the aviation industry, with a much less warm relationship with the new Government, is getting ready to frustrate the Government as it seeks to back away from expansion at any cost. It is likely to be the aviation industry, rather than the Government, will is going to be pushing the expansion schemes which AirportWatch opposes. It is the industry, therefore, which is likely to be the focus of our attention. There will be two strands to AirportWatch's approach. We will be assisting groups fighting growth at their airports. We will also be working with the national environmental organisations to push for the tax breaks the aviation currently enjoys to be eliminated as quickly as is practicable. It is a nonsense that, at time when VAT has risen to 20%, the aviation industry doesn’t pay any. We will be seeking to meet with the new Government to encourage them to seek to remove these tax breaks where they can and to make sure that the new Plane Tax is used as an effective tool to curtail demand. We are also looking to work with organisations in Europe to make the same demands at a European level.. Climate 9: Found guilty of breach of the peace at Aberdeen Airport The Climate9, on trial in Aberdeen for their runway invasion in March 2009, were finally found guilty of breach of the peace on 25th June. More serious charges of vandalism were dropped and charges were significantly reduced over the course of the 2 week trial. The action by the Climate9was designed to stop carbon emissions from aviation and highlight the links between Donald Trump’s planned hotel and golf course complex and the expansion of Aberdeen airport. The Climate9's lawyers argued their right to protest was legitimate in the face of the real and urgent threat of runaway climate change, combined with The Climate9 and supporters on their way into Court the political deficit in acting on climate change. Environmental lawyers hoped that another verdict - in addition to the Kingsnorth Six verdict in 2008 - in favour of climate activists by a jury could mark a shift in 'social values'. However, Aberdeen - the Oil Capital of Europe - was always likely to find them guilty. The trial has been another significant step both in showing that peaceful protest is a necessary and legitimate way to take the action needed on climate change and that Climate Science can be heard in court as evidence. Sentence was deferred until August. www.climate9.com Updates of the trial day by day are at http://www.climate9.com/newsie/ 1 Post-trial thoughts from Tilly Gifford, one of the Climate9: We all fully intended to be arrested and prosecuted when undertaking the closing down of Aberdeen Airport in March 2009. We expected this to lead to convictions and criminal records. This is an informed position: we fear that the consequences of inaction loom overhead, and are much scarier than the consequences of the actions we took on the Aberdeen runway. The momentum of the last 15 months has woven a rich tapestry of voices of dissent: members of the UK Public Health Council, top civil rights lawyers, residents from Heathrow, farmers from Climate impacted Bangladesh and from Scotland, fuel-poverty campaigners from Glasgow. Even the Masters in Aircraft Engineering wrote us statements of support. The learning curve has been documented and diarised. It is being compiled into a resource for the next wave of The Climate9 outside Court at the end of the trial actions against carbon-heavy industry. The ploddingly slow prosecution case was also an opportunity to finally clear our name. The lies and emotional blackmail used to intervene with our right to peaceful protest were exposed. The court finally witnessed the unravelling of 'erroneous' information supplied by BAA. One charge levelled at us was delaying an emergency flight. It turned out there was never any emergency air ambulance with a critically ill baby: BAA lied to us, and lied to the police. There was a scheduled medical flight, which always could have taken off. And it did take off. “This is news to me that it was a scheduled flight” said Inspector Irvine, in charge of arresting us in March, from the witness box. The statement from the head of the Air Ambulance company reads: “Our flight was scheduled to take off at 8.00am this morning, but in fact took off about 8.35am, but this was due to our operational delay by the medics and not the protestors. This incident has had no financial or life threatening or operational impact on our operation. I have no complaint regarding this matter.” During this two-week jury trial, massive stepping stones have been placed into the murky waters of shifting social values. This was the first time in Scotland, and the first time anywhere since the failure of the Copenhagen talks, that a jury have heard climate experts testifying as to the dangers of climate change in relation to aviation. The nine of us have been found guilty of 'Breach of the Peace'. Is ‘peace’ our mundane business-as- usual, steadily and surely eating through our ten-year-window-of-opportunity to peak and curb CO2 emissions? If ‘peace’ is the system where the biggest polluters advertise their services expensively on massive billboards, whilst voices of dissent are criminalized, then I suggest it is a 'peace' worth breaching. I choose the 'peace' of functioning ecosystems, not yet condemned to collapse, and a truly sustainable way of life for all. To maintain this ‘peace’, a wide alliance of workers, residents, scientists and concerned citizens, are fully and unapologetically prepared to conjure up and promote strategies of resistance to disrupt the putative 'peace' of unsustainable, carbon intensive 'business as usual'. Tilly Gifford July 2010 2 Bristol Airport - The real fight starts now! Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE) have launched a new fundraising campaign, in order to pay legal costs to continue to challenge the flawed decision by North Somerset Council to allow the airport to expand. Consent was given in May and the case has now been referred to the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, because some of the development (car park) is on green belt land, and because of its climate change impacts. The decision may be in August. If he does not grant a public enquiry, SBAE plan to mount a legal challenge on the basis that there is no current government policy to support the decision to approve the plans. SBAE has been advised by its lawyers that the Bristol airport application is open to legal challenge because it is based on the 2003 Government aviation policy that in March was ruled by a High Court judge as out of date because it is not compatible with the 2008 Climate Change Act. This could be the first test case for the new coalition Government's policy on regional airport expansion. Bristol Airport’s application to increase passenger numbers to 10 million by 2019 would lead to a 125% increase in CO2 emissions from flights at the airport. The UK is committed under the Climate Change Act to cutting CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. Bristol campaigners fear the expansion will create a wanton increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the use of green fields for parking thousands of cars, increased traffic on narrow roads and an extra 6 flights per hour on average (and worse at busy times). If it is allowed, there could be an airport the size of Luton on Bristol's doorstep. SBAE are asking for donations for a legal challenge. http://www.nobristolairportexpansion.co.uk Concern about anticipated Gatwick Airport expansion under GIP ownership Comment from GACC: "Like campaigners at Heathrow and Stansted, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC) is delighted to have the new Government confirm that there will be no new runways in the South East. However two issues still worry us: 1). the South East Airports Taskforce, and 2). the Gatwick owner's expansion plans. On the first issue we are glad that Theresa Villiers, Minister of State for Aviation, said in reply to a written question from Sam Gyimah, one of our new MPs with whom we have established friendly contact, "The South East Airports Taskforce will bring together key players from across the industry to explore the scope for measures to help improve reliability, reduce delay and create better conditions for all users. I have invited representation from the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) to consider the environmental impact of any proposals " But it remains disturbing that other statements about the Taskforce have implied that it will look for ways to improve the efficiency of the airports, which may mean ways to squeeze more flights onto the existing runways. The precise terms of reference have yet to be determined and we will strongly resist any increase in noise or other environmental damage. 3 Our concerns are given more weight by the Gatwick owner's (GIP) avowed intent to squeeze more flights onto the single runway.

Load more

  9

Copy Link