Ken Livingstone: Heathrow Airport 'is shaming London'
01.08.07
Heathrow Airport is shaming London with its poor service and bosses who must be 'out of their skull', London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone, said yesterday. He made the comments on the eve of the British Airports Authority (BAA) going to the High Court to seek an injunction against protestors planning a protest camp and day of direct action at the airport later this month.
Mr. Livingstone said: 'Certainly Heathrow does shame London. It is typical of the English short-termism, lack of planning, lack of investment. It's quite clear that the current management at BAA, and the management before them, thought they could keep people almost as prisoner in this ghastly shopping mall so they can extract vast sums of money from them while they wait in appalling conditions.'
He added that the injunction BAA is seeking has increased the likelihood that hard-core protestors will attend the planned Camp for Climate Action protest at Heathrow Airport from August 14 to 21. He said: 'A small hard-core of virtually professional protesters were planning to do the sort of thing they do at G8 and other places. The police are quite good at dealing with this.'
'What BAA have done is guarantee massive coverage of what was going to be a minor encampment. Now it will undoubtedly be more larger than it would have been. Someone there must be out of their skull. The vast majority of people would not have been aware that this would be taking place.'
BAA said faced with some activists' publicised plans to 'disrupt and blockade' the airport through direct action, it had no alternative but to apply for an injunction. The operator said it needed to strike a balance between the right of passengers to travel unhindered and the right to protest lawfully.
The spokesman added: 'We are not deaf to the concerns of business leaders about Heathrow and we have got a plan in place to address them. We are adding Terminal 5 to increase capacity. Accusations that we are operating a shopping mall are misjudged. Revenue from retail operations enables us to keep landing fees low.'
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
