Green The Skies!

In the light of the Secretary of State’s decision to give the go-ahead to the construction of Manchester Airport’s second runway people recently set up camp on the site of the proposed construction. The construction of this runway will involve the destruction of 42 ponds, 15km of hedgerow, farmland and seven hectares of mature woodland.

On top of this there will be a significant contribution to global warming from the increased air travel. (It has been estimated that current projections for air travel mean that any easing up of the destruction of the ozone layer from CFC bans will be completely negated.) If this isn’t enough the chief economic advisor to the Department of Transport has estimated that aircraft emit 35-65% more C02 than cars per passenger kilometre travelled. Combined with the pollution that will result from the proposed roads developments to service the airport it can be called nothing less than an ecological disaster.

As roads campaigns have had a significant effect on the roads programme, residents at the runway camp hope that aviation and airport developments, including Manchester, Heathrow and Newcastle will all come under close scrutiny.

In the meantime the Manchester people have heard little from the airport itself. Initially denying that they owned the land the airport have nevertheless sent ‘agents’ each day to visit the campers and inform them that they are trespassing. Whilst legal moves beyond this have been slow in coming, the campaigners have begun tunnelling and have set up a second camp. As ever more people are needed to establish other camps. The airport have claimed that they want to start construction work in April so are expected to start efforts to evict people at any time. For directions to the camp and more information on the campaign contact Coalition Against Runway 2 on: 0161 834 8221 or telephone the camp directly on: 0958 451525.