Here Lily tells us about ‘just doing it’ with Transition Heathrow:
For me, Transition Heathrow was born of a desire to take my activism to the next level. I’d been involved in environmental activism, in particular with Plane Stupid, for a few years, and had seen the incredible impact that genuine community based campaigning such as our ‘Adopt a Resident’ scheme could have. The campaign matched up residents whose homes were threatened by the expansion of the 3rd runway with activist groups from across the country who promised to support them if the bulldozers came to knock down their homes.
Moving into the area myself seemed like the next logical step. And so, together with a group of 5 other Plane Stupid activists who shared this slightly terrifying vision, I upped and moved last year into the village of Harlington.
The project itself had a good grounding – Paddy had managed to blag doing a project as a part of his MA which basically set out all the strategic thinking behind why Heathrow was such an interesting case study for this sort of exercise, and all of us had become regulars in the local area, attending events and getting to know the locals. Our rationale was that Heathrow had the potential to become an iconic point of positive resistance, of transition justice and a high profile example of a grassroots solution to climate change and peak oil because it brings together so many different emotive issues: the destruction of community, health impacts of aviation, the environment.
The reality of changing our lives, of living the campaign on a day to day basis, has been far from what I expected. The first 5 or so months of our time here were spent embodying the first permaculture principle: ‘Observe and Interact’ (with the odd milestone intersecting that, like our “holiday” to Copenhagen), before we kicked off our biggest endeavor so far at the beginning of March and squatted an abandoned market garden site, reopening it as a community space called ‘Grow Heathrow’.
Rather than the uphill struggle against overwhelming odds that I expected when we decided to take the battle over the 3rd runway, and wider issues besides, to BAAs doorstep, we have found ourselves welcomed with open arms.
For the first time in my life I actually feel a part of a geographical community. The local residents have been incredible, supporting us, mucking in at Grow Heathrow and working with us to shift the monumental amounts of rubbish that were on the site. We are now at a point where we have two fully glazed greenhouses, more corguettes and tomatoes than you can shake a stick at, and a declaration that the 3rd runway is officially dead in the water.
Last weekend all our hard work came to a head when we hosted an entire area at the local Hayes Carnival. It was a glorious day, in baking sunshine, that saw us roping off our own patch of the park with meters and meters of bunting, setting up a solar powered stage, a bike powered smoothie maker, a growing area, and last but not least a solar cinema that was hosted by Just Do It, showcasing some fantastic films. Whilst it was a totally exhausting experience, Hayes Carnival was a measure of our success so far, bringing together residents, activists and local politicians to demonstrate the strength of a united community.
The fight is by no means over – our original desire to make the Heathrow villages a beacon of sustainability remains, as does the need to support this community that has been blighted for so many years by the overhanging threat of airport expansion. The runway may be long gone, but we’re not going anywhere.
Beautiful writing from Lily, explaining all elements of our project and Grow Heathrow site. Lovely photo selection too