Originally Posted by
Shangri-La
I love this article:
Meanwhile, a Greenpeace coalition announced today that it has bought up a large piece of land earmarked for Heathrow's third runway. The campaigners, who include actress Emma Thompson, impressionist Alistair McGowan and Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer, bought the land for an undisclosed fee. They have pledged not to sell the land to the government or BAA if the expansion gets the green light.
A better strategy would be to donate the money to a fund to pay the legal fees of the 700-or-so people who face the compulsory purchase of their homes to make way for this expansion. They have
significant Article 8 rights to their home which would have to be properly considered in any CPO. Just buying up land to be difficult is unlikely to be an effective strategy as their Article 8 rights (if they have any) are likely to be insubstantial.
Pick the best examples from the 700 residents (people who have lived in their houses for many years, community ties, illness etc.) and you've got your test case. It will take the best part of 3 years for those cases to wend their way through the Courts, and even were they to lose (and it would be by no means a sure thing that they would) they could then take their case to the ECHR in Strasbourg. Oh, and the CPO process only begins once the planning case has finished, which will take years and years and years and years and years.