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Gallery|Climate

‘Grow Heathrow’ community resists airport expansion

Environmental activists say runway expansion would make for ‘the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the country’.

Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Established in March 2010, the Grow Heathrow community is struggling against forced eviction, although its case in the High Court has been delayed until the spring of 2016. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
By Rich Wiles
Published On 30 Nov 201530 Nov 2015
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London’s Heathrow Airport is one of several sites considered in recent years to address a purported need to raise the UK’s airport capacity. BAA, the airport’s owners, developed three plans during this time to build a third runway at Heathrow.

Each plan proposed expanding the airport and its infrastructure in to neighbouring villages, threatening local communities while raising the environmental cost to the wider area.

In the aftermath of a 2009 “Climate Change Camp” held in the area, local communities invited activists to maintain a presence in the villages as a focus for local resistance against Heathrow’s expansion of the airport expansion. The proposed site was a disused market garden that had become a dumping ground for rubbish in the village of Sipson.

Over the next two years, more than 30 tonnes of rubbish was removed as activists established “Grow Heathrow” – an “off-grid” community that aims to support local villages in their struggle against the airport’s expansion.

In June 2015, after three years of deliberation, the UK’s Airport Commission finally recommended the building of a third runway at Heathrow. In response, Airport Watch, an environmental group opposed to the expansion, said Heathrow would become “the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the country”.

Despite the decision and an ongoing High Court eviction case against them, activists remain at Grow Heathrow supporting the villagers and continuing their work of “cultivating cultures of community resistance”.

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Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
The four-acre site occupied by Grow Heathrow activists was originally a market garden but, left vacant for many years, had become an illegal waster dump. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
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Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Activists grow organic fruit, vegetables and herbs on the site, distributing any surplus to the nearby villages. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
The community rejects any hierarchical structure so decisions are reached through consensus, with all members being in agreement before a policy in is implemented. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Communal accommodation is free to all members and short-term volunteers. Several full-timers have built their own homes using natural and recycled materials. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
One volunteer, who has lived on the site for five months, says that Grow Heathrow's roots in the surrounding communities are fundamental. 'We were invited here by the local communities to resist [the expansion of] Heathrow Airport.' [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
The community relies on recycled and donated materials and has established various workshops kitted out with tools and materials that would otherwise have gone to waste. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
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Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
A 25-year-old volunteer, who has been on site for a year, says: 'We are a grassroots struggle against climate change - something that is going to affect everyone on this planet.' [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Some communal spaces have been established inside the greenhouses from the former market gardens. Others have been built from scratch using natural materials that provide effective insulation. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Eszter, originally from Hungary, is a computer programmer and a member of the community's 'energy work team'. Grow Heathrow produces its own power from solar panels and wind turbines and is completely independent of the UK energy grid. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
The original Heathrow expansion plan would have led to the demolition of Sipson. Activists say that although new plans are now on the table, between 50-70 percent of Sipson's houses have been bought up by the BAA. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
The latest plan for Heathrow's third runway, backed by the UK Airport's Commission in June 2015, proposes a north-westerly expansion into the village of Harmondsworth, which would mean the compulsory purchase of 750 properties in the village. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Disillusioned with mainstream society, one Grow Heathrow volunteer says: 'I wanted a new start and to go back to basics, to learn to live off and support the land.' [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Food that cannot be grown on site is sourced from supermarket waste, food that has passed its sell-by date. According to the British Retail Consortium, the UK has the highest rate of food waste in the European Union, amounting to about 15 million tonnes annually. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
A student from London's Camberwell College of Arts, joined Harts, an arts residency programme at Grow Heathrow. She says she would like to develop her 'art as activism'. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Grow Heathrow - Cultivating Cultures of Resistance
Grow Heathrow is one of several alternative communities living outside mainstream society in Britain but, unlike others, it doesn't turn its back on the wider community. [Rich Wiles/Al Jazeera]


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