|
|
Translate:
              BAA denies seeking blanket ban on airport protest
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 By John Vidal BAA backtracked yesterday from trying to get one of the widest-ranging injunctions ever sought in Britain and denied it was trying to stop 5 million members of the National Trust and other groups going to Heathrow to demonstrate against climate change. But BAA, which owns the airport, said it still wanted to ban the Camp for Climate Action, planned for August 14 to 21, because it was intended to disrupt the airport with direct action. BAA said in the high court that it was seeking a broad injunction to prevent four individuals, Joss Garman, Leo Murray, John Stewart and Geraldine Nicholson, representing four small aviation watchdog groups, from going near the airport. It argued that it needed to include their organisations and supporters in case they were part of the camp. These included the RSPB, the National Trust, Greenpeace and the Woodland Trust. “I am seeking to bring within the definition of protesters persons acting unlawfully in the name of Camp for Climate Action,” said BAA’s lawyer, Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden. “We are only trying to injunct people who are acting unlawfully … we only wish to injunct those who wish to obstruct us or prevent us using the airport. We say there are four groups who are intending to have a climate camp - the raison d’être is to disrupt our lawful activities. What BAA does not want is people coming on to the airport to act unlawfully and, on the evidence, these four groups intend to [do] just that.” Transport for London and London Underground said they had not been consulted over the injunction. Their counsel, Martin Chamberlain QC, told the court that the injunction was “an attempt to bind 5 million people”. “What Mr Lawson-Cruttenden has said … is that it has been clear all along that the only people sought to be injuncted are the four named defendants,” he said. “It is quite the reverse. It has been clear all along, until the moment we arrived at court today, that in fact the people sought to be injuncted included all the members of the defendant organisations … This is unjustifiable and disproportionate.” But the judge, Mrs Justice Swift, who said she was a member of three of the groups, said she was confused about what BAA wanted and instructed the company to return today with a skeleton legal argument to justify its case. MPs and others said yesterday that the company was in danger of making itself more unpopular than it already was. “This injunction is a challenge to a basic British value,” said Susan Kramer, MP for Richmond, who represents people living near Heathrow. “People who have been quietly opposed to the airport expansion are now getting fed up. This attempt at an injunction against a very reasonable group smacks of arrogance.” Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, had earlier in the week accused BAA of being “out of their skull” and merely paving the way for hardcore protesters to invade the climate action camp. The injunction seeks to keep protesters away from platforms 6 and 7 of Paddington station, all trains travelling to Heathrow, the Piccadilly line of London Underground, the M4 motorway and all service stations between junctions 3 and 6. Junctions 13 to 15 were also included. Protesters would not be allowed to carry wooden poles, stepladders, spades, saws, nails, hammers, ropes, glue or whistles. The Camp for Climate Action said the protest would go ahead whether or not BAA won its injunction. “We accuse BAA of abusing people’s rights to freedom of expression and of pushing for the expansion of airports in the knowledge that it will lead directly to climate change and indirectly to millions of deaths,” it said. The hearing continues. Have Your Say: BAA denies seeking blanket ban on airport protest Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
|
amero? Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 11:53 AM Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
Limewax-Everything Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 11:36 AM Community demands change following Taser tragedy Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 11:02 AM Noam Chomsky: Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism. Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 10:55 AM Don't bail out the Fat Cat's! Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 10:10 AM CAPITALISM IN MELT DOWN: LESSONS FROM THE 1930s Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 09:55 AM The buck stops with you, Brown Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 09:44 AM WSWS-Today---------- 11 October 2008 Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 09:28 AM Voices on the fringe Last post by Unregistered @ 09:17 AM Life after death Last post by Thinking Man's Idiot @ 09:01 AM  Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More Breaking News  Archive |
TOP NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
LATEST NEWS DISCUSSIONS |
|
|
Spooks in the classroom Govt. Uses Contractors to Probe Iraq Contractors The establishment that destroyed America's first republic Seven Years After 9/11, Spies Finally Forced to Share |
Christy commented on: Buy Your Poison - Aspartame, Diet Soda, Splenda Who ingests toothpaste? I know I don’t. Continue Reading & Reply Mick Meaney commented on: Spooks in the classroom I’ve removed your misinformation spam links. Please keep things on topic. Cheers. Continue Reading & Reply mark smith commented on: The EU’s control structure, inside and outside Britain Its all connected to the bilderberg and new world order Continue Reading & Reply Mad Boffin commented on: Jon Snow: “Editors sold their souls” to MoD Would you put your valuables in your garden for someone to steel? So, do you suppose the... Continue Reading & Reply |
|
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
Loading ...
