At 10:00 this morning the land owner plus 5/6 bailiffs arrived to evict the residents of Grow Heathrow, threatening to break entry. Residents locked themselves to structures and climbed to higher ground. The police arrived, explaining to the bailiffs they were woefully unequipped to enforce an eviction. Indeed they were. Moreover, Inspector David George from the Heathrow Villages Area Police confirmed to us that as no official documentation regarding a warrant for the eviction was presented to Grow Heathrow or the police, the attempt to evict the site was unlawful.
This success has proved to be useful practise for our call-out response, with many locals and individuals in the Grow Heathrow family arriving this morning.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME DOWN!
If you’d like to be added to the eviction call-out phone tree, email us at info@transitionheathrow.com with your phone number, or text us on 07706602284.
HAYES CARNIVAL HERE WE COME!
We are still, as always, trying to buy our community garden’s land instead of having bailiffs at our home.
Heathrow airport admits that at least 750 homes would need to be evicted and bulldozed under their plans for a third runway, and obviously more for a fourth runway. However, houses next to the runway would be unliveable due to noise and possibly air pollution. Final government blueprints for a runway would be different to the airport’s proposals, and may include more homes. Grow Heathrow has been teaching local residents how to peacefully resist eviction, as a third runway could emit 11.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – more than the whole of Kenya. It is no surprise that people are refusing to be evicted to make way for climate crimes, when scientists warn that such airport expansion is incompatible with the government’s legally binding obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008 to cut carbon by 80% by 2050.
