TV’s Richard Briers and Alys Fowler help Garden Organic to plant allotment on proposed Heathrow runway site
Date added: 12 May, 2009
12.5.2009 (Horticulture Week)
Richard Briers and Alys Fowler have planted an allotment to protest against expansion of Heathrow airport.
Good Life actor Richard Briers and Gardeners’ World presenter Alys Fowler joined the fight against a third runway at Heathrow yesterday (11 May) by planting an allotment on the proposed runway site.
The land in the village of Sipson was bought by Greenpeace in November and is now owned by 45,000 of its members including Emma Thompson, Zac Goldsmith and Alistair McGowan.
A joint venture between Garden Organic and Greenpeace aims to make use of the land which has been ear marked as the site for a third runway.
Briers and former HW writer Fowler joined villagers in planting two Bright Future apple trees and a selection of vegetables from the Heritage Seed Library.
The apple trees were selected as a mark of respect to Richard Cox, creator of the Cox’s Orange Pippin apple, who is buried in the village churchyard and whose grave may have to be exhumed if the runway plans go ahead.
The allotment is about the size of a football field and will provide organic fruit and vegetables to the villagers who face their homes being bulldozed if plans for a runway are approved.
Briers said: “I’m planting carrot seeds. After they’ve grown I’m going to send a runway carrot once a year to every member of the cabinet. I’m hoping they’ll become so attached to them that they’ll drop their plans for Heathrow expansion. It’s always best to reach for the carrot rather than the stick.”
Fowler said: “This year, grow something, anything, and you will make your world a cleaner, greener more pleasant place to be. Grow something you can eat or drink — a simple mint tea, a salad, your own cucumber for a sandwich and you will not only taste something mind blowing, but you’ll lighten your footprint in the nicest possible way.”
The fight over the land is likely to take many years as a formal review of the plans is not due until 2012.
Garden Organic operations director Bob Sherman said: “Understandably, people might be swayed by the economic argument for a third runway but that is actually a very short term view. We have always taken the view that growing your own food is about helping the environment as well as being healthy.”
Garden Organic provided seeds from the Heritage seed collection, including broad beans and carrots. The collection is made up of lines which are no longer commercially available and is maintained by the charity.
By planting organic vegetables, a Garden Organic representative said, the site will not only prevent carbon expansion but will reduce the villages carbon footprint.
The organisation was approached by Greenpeace after the charity bought the land in November but did not want it to go to waste.
Greenpeace climate campaigner Anna Jones said: “A third runway cannot and will not be built. The whole country is against this ridiculous plan, and tired of a government that lectures them on doing their bit for the environment, and then turns around to support huge carbon-intensive infrastructure. The Government needs to get out of bed with the aviation industry and listen to the scientists, voters and businesses that understand that Heathrow expansion has no place within a low-carbon future.”
The project has numerous endorsements from celebrity gardeners, including Monty Don, who said: “The plan for a third runway at Heathrow is institutionalised madness and I wish Richard and the community of Sipson the best of luck in their campaign.”
Richard Briers digs in to help stop the third runway
Greenpeace
Posted by Christian on 12 May 2009.
“This new runway is just such a daft idea. It’s obvious to everyone who digs a garden that the climate is already changing, and things are set to get even worse, so why make Heathrow the biggest single emitter of CO2 in the country?”
– Richard Briers
When the time came to dig an allotment on the Airplot, we knew that we needed some expert advice. And who better to turn to than the man who brought allotments to the attention of millions in 70s TV sensation The Good Life, and organic gardening supremos Garden Organic?
Yes, the latest guest to the Airplot is Richard Briers, who has dusted off his spade and started digging up the land earmarked by Gordon Brown for the construction of a new runway at Heathrow airport.
Richard is joining Gardener’s World presenter Alys Fowler to plant organic carrots on the plot – they want to send vegetables to every member of the cabinet, in the hope that they’ll enjoy them so much they’ll ditch their plans for a third runway.
The allotment will be cared for using organic practices for the benefit of the local community. Unless of course, BAA and the government get their way and a new runway tarmacs over the allotment and the local community with it. But with businesses, environmentalists, gardeners and celebrities joining the tens of thousands of people who’ve signed up to the Airplot, that’s never going to happen, because we own their runway and they’re not getting it back!
As Richard says: “If thousands more people sign up to become beneficial owners of the allotment land we’ll be able to stand together against Gordon’s Brown’s silly idea, armed with root vegetables and the knowledge that we’re right and he’s wrong.”
To find out more and join Richard Briers as a beneficial owner of the plot, visit the Airplot site.
The Good Life’s Richard Briers digs for victory over third runway
Richard Briers – the hapless Tom Good in the BBC’s 1970s sitcom The Good Life – has officially come out against a third runway at Heathrow by signing up to Greenpeace’s Airplot campaign
There’s nothing like the endorsement of a “national treasure” to boost your cause. The Gurkhas have Joanna Lumley. The “Time to Change” mental health campaign has Stephen Fry. And the Alzheimer’s Society has Terry Pratchett.
So despite already having a vast coalition of support from a wide cross-section of the British public, the No Third Runway campaign, which is battling against the expansionist plans of Heathrow’s owners, has now decided to roll its biggest gun yet onto the field of battle – Richard Briers.
By playing such an ace card, the campaign hopes to see off the threat of a third runway being built once and for all. Today, Briers – who played the effervescent, if somewhat hapless, Tom Good in the BBC’s 1970s sitcom The Good Life – officially came out in support of the anti-expansionists by signing up to Greenpeace’s Airplot campaign which aims to build and maintain an allotment slap bang in the middle of the proposed site for the runway.
In January, the campaign group took ownership of a parcel of land big enough to grow some vegetables. It says it wants to create a “legal block against any planning applications or attempts to buy the land, and if necessary physically blocking construction – standing with the people of Sipson, whose 700 homes would be flattened to build the runway, to stop the bulldozers”.
Briers celebrated the passing of the land into Airplot’s hands by planting some carrots – he intends to send some of the vegetables to every member of the cabinet – and he joins other high-profile “Airplotters” such as Emma Thompson and Alistair McGowan.
In characteristic language, Briers described the proposed runway as a “daft idea”:
“It’s obvious to everyone who digs a garden that the climate is already changing, and things are set to get even worse, so why make Heathrow the biggest single emitter of CO2 in the country? If thousands more people sign up to become beneficial owners of the allotment land we’ll be able to stand together against Gordon’s Brown’s silly idea, armed with root vegetables and the knowledge that we’re right and he’s wrong.”
Without wanting to jinx the whole anti-expansion campaign, it genuinely is really hard to see now how the third runway is ever going to get off the ground.
Support for it seems to be evaporating by the day – even a bunch of business leaders came out against it last week – and its political supporters are surely for the chop in the not-too distant future with their likely replacements pledging to scrap the plan. Perhaps common sense will prevail, after all. One even feels that Jerry and Margo Leadbetter would now sign up to this particular cause.
