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Campaigners join forces to create an allotment on 3rd runway site
Thirty years after The Good Life ended, actor Richard Briers has teamed up with Greenpeace and Garden Organic to create an allotment on land earmarked by Gordon Brown for the construction of a new runway at Heathrow airport.
The land, in the village of Sipson just north of Heathrow, was purchased by Greenpeace with Emma Thompson, Alistair McGowan and Zac Goldsmith in January, just days before the Government gave the green light to Heathrow expansion. The plot now has over 41,000 people signed up as beneficial owners, including Richard.
The Sipson area has a proud horticultural history. It is the home of the 'Cox’s Orange Pippin' apple, whose creator, Richard Cox, is buried in the local churchyard. Up until the 1960s it was covered in market gardens where all sorts of fruit and vegetables were grown, from peaches to strawberries to leeks. These literally used to feed London – food would be transported to Covent Garden to be sold to the city’s population.
Under the watchful eye of Garden Organic’s gardening expert, Bob Sherman, Richard and the Sipson villagers will be planting seedlings from the charity’s Heritage Seed Library – a collection of rare vegetables at risk of becoming extinct in the UK. They will also be planting the 'Bright Future' apple tree, a new variety perfect for organic gardeners, selected by Garden Organic to symbolise its hopes for a more sustainable world. In planting them, they are looking to remember the legacy left by Richard Cox, and, they hope, towards a future where the proposed runway has been forgotten.
The whole of the Sipson area would be destroyed if a third runway gets the go-ahead, and the campaigners say that the planned expansion would make Heathrow the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the whole of the UK. The expansion plans threaten to seriously undermine the UK’s ability to meet the 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 that we have committed to.
Richard Briers, former star of the 70's sitcom, The Good Life told KG: “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. I think it’s always better to reach for the carrot rather than the stick.”
“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? I know my carrots alone won’t stop the Government, but they’ll be very tasty indeed and this is my way of doing something to block the new runway. 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.”
Myles Bremner, Chief Executive of Garden Organic said: “Garden Organic is thrilled that ‘growing your own’ and the role it can play in tackling climate change has been recognised by Greenpeace through the creation of an allotment on the Heathrow expansion site. The fact that the local community of Sipson will be able to grow its own food on the doorstep and grow it sustainably is a promising step towards a greener future as well as a clear ‘thumbs down’ to the unnecessary food imports flown into this country.” |
