“We can’t have a situation where I end up paying for the destruction of my own head office.”

After having tried to stop the unstoppable expansion of Heathrow Airport for over 40 years and failed it takes a lot to make me laugh.

As a student I spent a while at the public hearing into whether terminal 4 should be built - it was but with a promise there would be no Terminal 5. That was followed by terminal 5 and now a Third Runway. before long there will need to be a Terminal 6 and a Fourth Runway.

But just occasionally the script goes wrong - as this hilarious article from The Guardian shows;

The Guardian 22/11/16

The boss of Heathrow’s biggest customer, British Airways, only discovered that building the airport’s planned third runway would require the demolition of his airline’s head office after looking at a map.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, claimed that despite the group being responsible for about half of all flights at the London hub, he received no formal warning of the proposed demolition.

He said: “We were never actually informed or advised by Heathrow that they intended to knock down our headquarters.”

Caroline Pidgeon

Both IAG and British Airways are based at Waterside in Harmondsworth, which opened in 1998 at a cost of £200m and sits in a 115-hectare (280-acre) manmade park. Walsh said the HQ was “a fantastic environmental achievement on our part”.

However, it looks unlikely to stay that way. “The first I saw of it was when the Airport Commission report came out and I saw a map and I thought, that looks very close to Waterside,” Walsh said. “Then I discovered it actually went right through Waterside.”

Walsh’s grievance over his doomed HQ has been compounded by the prospect of being effectively charged for the compensation bill.

While all properties in the path of the runway will be compulsorily purchased at 25% over the market price, the way Heathrow’s charges are set by the Civil Aviation Authority means that airlines are likely to pay more to operate from the airport as expansion costs grow.

Walsh said: “That compensation goes into the regulatory asset base and we end up paying 56% of that.

“We can’t have a situation where I end up paying for the destruction of my own head office.”

The Waterside affair may have contributed to apparent rising antipathy from Walsh towards Heathrow, which he lambasted as “fat, dumb and happy” at the Airport Operators Association conference in London.

The IAG boss accused Heathrow of failing to hold proper discussions with airlines about creating a cost-effective airport and expansion plan.

He said: “I don’t think they have the capacity to engage.
They’ve never had to go out there and encourage airlines to operate from [Heathrow], unlike every other airport … Heathrow sits there fat, dumb and happy, waiting for the queue to build up.”

In approving Heathrow’s expansion plans last month, the government said that increased domestic flights from around the UK would be a precondition.

But Walsh stated that his airlines would not operate routes to airports such as Newquay in Cornwall, “even if [Heathrow chief executive] John Holland-Kaye got down and begged me”.

Well, it made me laugh, anyway.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Fighting Heathrow Expansion.

This picture comes from 2015 when I joined the picket of Uxbridge County Court, to try to save 'Grow Heathrow' from eviction.

It was very nice that the newly appointed Shadow Chancellor and M.P. for Hayes and Harlington John McDonnell was able to join us.

The decision was put off then and Grow Heathrow are still there but now the decision has been announced that the third runway will be built at Heathrow, they are likely to be in the firing line again and soon.

As a result of the decision the villages of Sipson and Harlington will disappear along with large sections of Colnbrook and a big chunk of green belt. The M25 motorway will either be diverted or built over and extended to 14 lanes, while much of the area where I grew up will be blighted by development and blanketed with noise and pollution forever.

I'm aiming to oppose the airport expansion as much as I'm able to, although I suspect my direct action days are probably over now!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Now there's three of us.

Late Saturday night we had to make an expedition to Heathrow Airport - no that's not it;

This looks more like it;

Robyn's cat 'Sydney' was flying in to town.

It's not fair - she's travelled further than I ever managed to in my life and she even got a 12 hour stopover in Amsterdam as well, although I don't think she enjoyed it.

Sydney's been looked after by Robyn's Mum for two and a half years until she started to make her ill.

We have to say a big thank you to Robyn's Uncle for paying for Sydney's trip - we couldn't have managed it ourselves right now. It's a wedding present!

I have to say that I am very much not a cat lover - I would have loved to have had a dog but I had to work long and unpredictable hours and I had someone to look after - I knew I couldn't cope with anything else.

Also I always wanted to travel and didn't want to have to look after a dog too.....

.....In the end I never got to go anywhere and didn't get to have the dog either, so I'm a bit sour about it all.

Now I've got a cat and I'm trying to come to terms with that unexpected turn of events.

Here's Sydney on the trolley;

Robyn adopted her (or she adopted Robyn) when she was a stray in Philadelphia.

The one chance I have in getting on with her is that she is one tough cat; when we spoke to the nice man at Animal reception he told us that they had decided not to let her out of the carry case as she was "a bit angry".

He also told us that when they had to scan her chip they decided to use the wand they use for Lions and Tigers so that they didn't have to go close up to her.

She's a punk, clearly an Alley Cat with attitude, I think I quite like that.

Robyn hasn't seen her for two and a half years;

But something must have worked out right because when we got her back she had something to eat and drink and was just......a bit of a pussy cat.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

St. Mary's fair at Harmondsworth.

On Saturday we went to Harmondsworth, one of the little villages surrounding Heathrow Airport, for St. Mary's fair.

There's a medieval barn, a church and a couple of pubs.

The fair is tiny - an old fashioned community fair.

They usually have some wonderful cakes and we weren't disappointed.

The fair is a continuing miracle because this little village and its houses will all disappear under the bulldozers of the airport - if it gets to build its third runway.

Just behind the churchyard (which will vanish too) is an area of fields, just waiting for the concrete; 

So every fair is an act of defiance.

When we got there it started raining, which was a shame.

But we are a hardy lot - "Pimp my jazz" usually play for us and they were ready with cover;

They play a mixture of Jazz and Easy Listening, usually not my thing but perfect for a sunny summers day.

And in the end, that's what we got - the sun did come out.

Here's Elena McAulay, guesting on vocals and really giving it some;

And Robyn and me, we had a couple of romantic dances in the June sun.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutst.peters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Wild deer amongst the Bluebells.

Every year at about this time, we start getting visitors; Reeve's Muntjac deer. They are very small and very, very shy - they live throughout the Thames Valley but you rarely see them.

They only come out when the grass starts growing because then they can hide and use the cover to move along green 'corridors', passing from garden to garden, from field to park and woodland......without being seen.

They come into our garden because it's overgrown and they like foraging.

I've tried to take photo's before but they always got spooked when I got the camera out.

Then today Robyn called me and I got these shots through the kitchen window;

Unfortunately they don't seem to want to eat the grass that's getting out of control - they prefer the bluebells or the leaves on the old willow;

"Now, if only I was a bit taller";

And then I was spotted;

Muntjac are natives of southern China and are rare there. Here they escaped from captivity over a hundred years ago and seemed to like it; further ones have been released over the years and they have thrived.

I love them but they are considered a pest; I hope they continue to get away with wandering through the gardens.

You know we are only a few miles from Heathrow Airport and 15 miles from central London.......and there are wild deer amongst the Bluebells.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

I'm back at Court......with Grow Heathrow!

I never thought I'd be outside a court again, early in the morning, endlessly hanging around......

On Thursday I was outside Uxbridge County Court in Hayes;

We even got into trouble - this is the security guard ordering us off the premises and then I got warned off twice for taking photographs.

Something which I took very seriously.

They even called the police out on us - which at my stage of life is the biggest tribute you could pay me.

'Grow Heathrow' is a collective of campaigners who took over a derelict market garden over five years ago - because it lies in the path of the planned third runway at Heathrow Airport.

They've been adopted by the local community and every so often you will have read about the things they do on this Blog.

There's music and art.....fun and protest.

A year or so ago, a speculator bought up the site with the intention of building luxury houses on it - all of which is a bit odd given the impending runway. 

Does the tax exempt offshore company imagine that the poor buyers won't have heard of the new runway?

Apart from being home to a lot of people, no one wants them to be evicted from the protest.

We had music - and it was good - I recognised the guy on the left from 'The Lagan' - a band of London Irish 'Celtic Punks' Robyn and me are hoping to see again soon.

Up The Lagan!

We sang one of my favourite songs; 'The World Turned Upside Down' which was written by Leon Rosselson but made famous by Billy Bragg and was very relevant on a day when some very courageous people were still holding out up in the trees at the Runnymede Eco Village;

In sixteen forty-nine to Saint George's Hill
A ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the people's will
They defied the landlords, they defied the law
They were the dispossessed, reclaiming what was theirs

 

"We come in peace," they said, "to dig and sow
We come to work the land in common and to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided we will make whole
So it can be a common treasury for all

 

The sin of property we do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain
By theft and murder they steal the land
Now everywhere the walls rise up at their command

 

They make the laws to chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell
We will not worship the god they serve
Their god of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve

 

We work, we eat together, we need no swords
We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free men though we are poor
You Diggers all, stand up for glory, stand up now"

 

From the men of property the order came
They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn
They were dispersed, but still the vision carries on

 

You poor, take courage, you rich, take care
This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share
All things in common, all people one
We come in peace, the order came to cut us down

There were lots of people from the squat;

And banners;

And something wonderful happened; the local Member of Parliament arrived to join us. I've been on quite a few demonstrations with John McDonnell in the past but I've never been on one with 'The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer'; 

John took a break from what must be the busiest time of his political life to give 'Grow Heathrow' his support and to hand in a statement for the court;

“Members of Grow Heathrow have become part of the local community, making a valuable contribution to the life of the local villages. Grow Heathrow is part of a fierce community resistance to Heathrow’s expansion that won’t go away easily for any government. I commend this group to you and hope that its members will be able to continue to remain on this site and be part of our community.”

Here's most of us in this picture by a freelance photographer Mark Kerrison - you can even see me with the green sign and the hat.

                         'Runner beans not Runways'

 

 

This was a sad and sombre day - while we were at the court the people from The Runnymede Eco Village were being chased down with dogs, their homes and possessions destroyed.

 

 

But by the end of the day 'Grow Heathrow' got an unexpected adjournment (lawyers love an adjournment) until summer 2016!

 

We live to fight another day.

 

They even called the Police out on us!

 

How cool is that?

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me; neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 



Handling the big jets.

Yesterday we didn't have anything exciting to do and when we were coming back home we saw that the planes coming into Heathrow were flying over us - so we stopped to take a look.

It's something I used to do, sometimes, then 9/11 came along and it wasn't possible anymore.

We parked on a road that runs past the end of the runway and then walked along to where the last landing lights are.......then we waited;

It's coming;

This is one of the new generation of big planes and no, I have no idea what it is;

 

 

All I know is that it's really, really big.

 

Then again, when you're standing at the end of the runway everything looks really, really big.

In the 'old days' before everyone panicked about security there was another 'secret' place where you could park at another runway and the planes flew in about 100 feet above you; it was amazing. You could actually feel the heat of the engines, the rush of wind.

Wow!

Even today, we were still weighing up how good each pilot was and every so often we'd catch the acrid smell of burning rubber from the tyres.

And then we caught sight of this;

 

 

It's one of the 'Heathrow Pods' but perhaps I ought to Blog about that another time!

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

42000 Thanx!

 

 

 

42000 page views and by chance Robyn had made an enormous Tiramasu......so we celebrated!

 

It was rich and alcoholic and huge.

 

What more could you want?

 

 

 

 



It's great to notch up another thousand views but it's also a sad time of year.

 

I hate June ending - my favourite month and when I would try to get some kind of holiday. Nice weather and the school holidays haven't started yet.

 

 

It's also sad that the Airports Authority has chosen Heathrow as its preferred site for a new runway; after all we wouldn't want those poor business men and women to be forced a bit out of their way would we?

 

 

It means a long and tough political battle, which I could do without.

 

I was thinking about Harmondsworth village where we were last weekend.

 

No one actually thinks about the hundreds of thousands of people in Colnbrook and Slough who will be most hurt or the millions of West Londoners whose lives will be made worse.

 

Big struggles to come!

 

It ain't over till its over!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

St. Mary's Fair, Harmondsworth.

I had an irritating morning and then we went to Harmondsworth - it's a little village in the shadow of Heathrow Airport. Actually, it's the airport's preferred site for a third runway; straight through the village and over the 15th century barn.

Now, the airport has backtracked and just wants to double the length of it's existing runway which kind of saves Harmondsworth.

But not really because next week there will be the announcement of the 'final' decision of which airport gets to grow and which loses out.

Except that I'm sure that if Heathrow loses out there will be a new plan and a new enquiry in about 3 years time and Harmondsworth (and us) will be in the firing line again.

We went to the village fair.

At the entrance was a huge banner of barbed wire and giant planes gobbling up everything;

Here are some of the supporting organisations;

And yes, I do go to things like this out of solidarity with the next door villages - we are all under the same threat.

Then again, it was also a nice sunny day and there was cake;

And Jazz on a Summers Day;

'Pimp my Jazz' were playing in the summer sun and this is Lonette Charles who had been away in America for a year;

 

I think it showed - she was singing really well.

 

Here's Gavin Sparks who writes the music;

 



It's music at the 'easy listening' end of Jazz which is not normally my thing but hey!; the sun was shining, the music was playing - there was cake to be eaten.

What's not to like?

'Pimp my Jazz' play great music well and that's always good.

And there was dancing in the summer sunshine;

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 



Flag it up!

If you'd been down to the little villages around Heathrow Airport today, you'd have seen a different flag on every lamppost....like this one. 

It's for 'Flag it up!', an arts event put on for local children by 'Transition Heathrow', the environmental activists who set up 'Grow Heathrow' on an abandoned market garden 5 years ago.

The squat wasn't just to set up an eco camp but to occupy the proposed site of the planned new runway for the airport. That was going to flatten at least two of the villages, wipe out the medieval barn at Harmondsworth and require the exhumation of all the people buried in Cherry Lane Cemetary.

Those plans are now in doubt, and the camp remains although it is under threat of eviction. They've also been working with the local community to organise this arts event.

Then it just had to pour with rain!

But that couldn't deter these children from Harmondsworth who were setting off on the long walk to Sipson and then after lunch on to Harlington;

 

When I can, I always try to show solidarity with the next door villages and support them in our shared fight to try to stop the eternal expansion of Heathrow.

 

As you can see there were lots of bikes;

And some happy faces despite the rain;

Here's 'Transition Heathrow's' banner getting up to speed

It's been sunny all week - such a shame for the kids;

Here's one of the adverts for the day;

The third runway may now follow a different route or they may try to go back to the original scheme. Either way, the three villages are united in their opposition.

Here's Robyn holding up one of the flags for me;

 

I was there to support the eco camp and it's aims but I had another reason to come as well.

 

Back in 1968 I took part in something quite different but along the same lines. I was on holiday in Devon and the beach was taken over by a bizarre collection of artists, engineers and students who put on a series of weird events over a couple of days.

 

I was about 10 or 11 years old and was captivated by what I saw. I remember a huge bingo game on the beach - all free and very popular. There was a professional (I thought) Bingo caller and proper cards.

 

There were even prizes. They got a crowd together of about a hundred eager people.

 

We tried to mark our cards as best as we could with sand as the numbers were called out....the tension mounted. Then all of a sudden everybody yelled 'Bingo!' all at the same time.

 

All the cards were identical. 

I found it hilarious.

 

I also remember a buried man, deep under the sand who could only be spoken to down a pipe. Occasionally, food would be passed down to him. Later, when contact was lost he was dug up to reveal....a scarecrow.

 

It was all nonsense, of course, but I never forgot it and a few years ago I took some time out to find out who had been behind it all.

 

It was then that I found out all about the remarkable artist John Fox and his partner who had continued to take art into communities for over 40 years - many of which were spent developing an arts centre and their ideas in Ulverston, Cumbria.

 

If there's a street theatre, a carnival or a public celebration of some kind it's likely that at least some of the inspiration came from John Fox and his motley band of followers.

 

He then wrote a handbook 'Engineers of the Imagination' which covered how to organise festivals, create illuminated lanterns and how to excite and interest people who would never think of themselves as 'artists'.... to be just that.

 

Oh, and they had a chapter on making flags and holding marches.....so that's where the idea came from! 

 

Here's their own history from their old website;

 

About Welfare State International

Founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill, Roger Coleman and others, Welfare State International was a loose association of freelance artists bought together by shared values and philosophy.

WSI first became well known for large-scale outdoor spectacular events. When the company began, taking art out of theatres and galleries into the street was considered revolutionary. The company's name was originally 'The Welfare State' offering art for all on the same basis as education and health.

Under the Welfare State umbrella, a remarkable group of engineers, musicians, sculptors, performers, poets and pyrotechnicians invented and developed site-specific theatre in landscape, lantern processions, spectacular fireshows, community carnivals and participatory festivals. These creations were by turns beautiful, abrasive, didactic, provocative, disturbing, wondrous and even gently therapeutic.

Some big events such as "The Raising of the Titanic" (London International Festival of Theatre 1983), 'False Creek' in Expo '86, Vancouver, and the biggest lantern festival in Europe (Glasgow City of Culture 1990) have become touchstones balancing the aesthetic with the social.

Welfare State International also exported artists, ideas, prototypes and artworks nationally and internationally.

'Engineers of the Imagination', the WSI Handbook, spread ideas and techniques worldwide and is still essential reading for artists working in the community. Many artists and companies in Britain and abroad have been influenced by Welfare State's vision and practice.

From 1983 WSI championed local participation in lantern parades, street flag displays and carnival performance from its new base in Ulverston, Cumbria. Today Ulverston is known as a 'Festivals Town' where culture and economic regeneration go hand in hand.

Looking beyond public festival, the company also moved into inventing and leading ceremonies for rites of passage, creating installations, and working with children and their parents to explore imaginative play.

 

What was so revolutionary in 1968 is now the accepted language - of festivals, of the London Olympics, of schoolchildren's lives.

 

Here you can watch a 2006 documentary celebrating John Fox's success in bringing the arts to the people over the years. I rather like the foolishness of 'Raising the Titanic' in London's Dockland. I immediately recognised what I saw in 1968.

I rather wish I'd been there;

 

https://vimeo.com/2048464

 

And now what they started has come to three of the Heathrow villages. I hope the kids remember this experience as long as I did mine.

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

 

Hope?

Friday, 15 August and this is the front gate to 'Grow Heathrow', which is the protest site in Sipson, Heathrow.

It's been there the last four years, a permanent home built on the derelict and heavily polluted site of an old Market Garden smack in the middle of the airport's first choice for a new runway.

In some ways they won - this isn't currently planned to be the runway although us locals have been lied to by the airport and by governments so often that we don't trust them.

But it's not just a protest against the airport expansion. It's meant to provide a sustainable alternative to concrete and profits. It's an example of what could be if only we make it so.

The landlord thinks otherwise - he's looking at turning a piece of waste ground into a multi million pound development, now that the runway has moved on a bit.

So there was a threat that the bailiffs would come in at 8-00am and that's why the site is packed with supporters from all over the country.

I've avoided putting people on here as it may become an issue when the Police become involved.

When I got there the threat was over, although as I warned them, this letter was just an opening shot.

They will wait and they will be back.

In the meantime I was given a guided tour; there are raised beds with beautiful vegetables, corn swaying in the breeze and runner beans in flower.

Herb gardens and fruit.

The old glasshouses are now meeting places and kitchens, and there are artists studios and workshops. There is a communal bicycle repair and recycling shop, a carpentry area and yet more art.

These are the grapes - not yet ready but with a nice bloom on them which is where the yeast that makes the wine comes from.

While the airport has only destroyed an area that was once the Market Garden of London, this is an example of....hope.

 

 

And above all there is art - placards, banners and graffiti all products of the artists studio. 

 

 

 

 

This is a protest that's popular with the local people of Sipson who appreciate what they are doing and the help they gave them in the struggle against the airport.

 

The local Member of parliament has supported the camp throughout and there is nationwide support and help available.

 

But the threat continues and I will try to keep you up to date on what happens.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com