Airport campaigners' illuminating message14 February 2011
When Friends of the Earth campaigner Denis Walker heard that the managing director of Southend Airport was giving a lecture opposite his house, it was an opportunity just too good to miss.
Denis, co-ordinator of South East Essex Friends of the Earth, explains:
"We've been opposing Southend Airport's runway extension since 2008 when we set up the Stop Airport Extension Now campaign. We've used all sorts of different tactics, and are now pursuing a Judicial Review in the High Court of the runway extension's planning permission.
"Even though in every consultation the overwhelming majority of people have been against the runway extension, the local council and the airport have ignored us and carried on regardless."
"I wanted to get the message across in a way they couldn't ignore - the perfect opportunity came when the airport's managing director gave a lecture at Southend's Royal Naval Association (RNA)."
"The RNA is directly opposite my house, so I borrowed a video projector, pointed it out of an upstairs window and projected anti-expansion messages onto the building in two-foot high letters".
"It certainly did the job - many of the people attending the lecture stopped to look at the messages scroll past, and so did passers-by."
Here's the video:
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