This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/25/we-feel-betrayed-harmondsworth-residents-furious-at-heathrow-decision
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| 'We feel betrayed': Harmondsworth residents furious at Heathrow decision | 'We feel betrayed': Harmondsworth residents furious at Heathrow decision |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| In Harmondsworth, one of the villages scheduled to be partly or wholly demolished to make way for Heathrow’s third runway, there was little shock but considerable distress and anger when the government’s decision to back expansion of the west London airport was confirmed. | |
| Neil Keveren, whose house will face the boundary fence of the new runway, said residents felt “betrayed” six years after David Cameron’s “no ifs, no buts” commitment that there would be no third runway at Heathrow. | Neil Keveren, whose house will face the boundary fence of the new runway, said residents felt “betrayed” six years after David Cameron’s “no ifs, no buts” commitment that there would be no third runway at Heathrow. |
| Keveren said: “We received a promise. We all made life choices based on that, which we believed. Some people decided to lay their loved ones to rest here because of it. I invested in my home. I thought we were safe and and we had a reasonable expectation that we were. I feel we have been have been betrayed by Theresa May.” | |
| Under the plans, half of the ancient village is to be flattened, including a number of listed buildings and a small housing estate. While the Norman church and a Grade I-listed medieval barn owned by English Heritage will be spared, residents say they expect the bits of the village that remain to become uninhabitable once the thunderous noise of the runway starts. | |
| “I’m very disappointed, and I feel betrayed, and also worried,” said Lesley O’Brien, whose house in Cambridge Close – where she has lived for 46 years and raised her three children – is scheduled to be bulldozed. | “I’m very disappointed, and I feel betrayed, and also worried,” said Lesley O’Brien, whose house in Cambridge Close – where she has lived for 46 years and raised her three children – is scheduled to be bulldozed. |
| “Where can I go? They keep on about the money, but it’s not about the money. They can keep their money. I want to stay here.” | “Where can I go? They keep on about the money, but it’s not about the money. They can keep their money. I want to stay here.” |
| Like many in the village, Dave Durston said he had local roots; having grown up and gone to school a few miles away, he moved to Harmondsworth in 1983. What angered him, he said, was “the fact that people who live nowhere near the place, without coming to see what’s going to be destroyed, can decide that it’s got to go”. | Like many in the village, Dave Durston said he had local roots; having grown up and gone to school a few miles away, he moved to Harmondsworth in 1983. What angered him, he said, was “the fact that people who live nowhere near the place, without coming to see what’s going to be destroyed, can decide that it’s got to go”. |
| Residents gathered from the early morning at Five Bells, the 400-year-old pub on the village green that has been the focus of much of the campaign against the third runway. | Residents gathered from the early morning at Five Bells, the 400-year-old pub on the village green that has been the focus of much of the campaign against the third runway. |
| Several dozen crammed into a timber-beamed upper room to watch Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, confirm the decision in the Commons. | Several dozen crammed into a timber-beamed upper room to watch Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, confirm the decision in the Commons. |
| Some wept, others were defiant. There were shouts of “liar” and “what about the residents?”, and when he mentioned the compensation packages that would be offered to those to lose their homes, one local shouted: “Not enough”. | |
| Armelle Thomas has lived in Harmondsworth since the late 1960s, when she and her late husband, Tommy, met working at Heathrow and “fell in love” with the village. Her house is also marked for demolition, but Thomas said she would never agree to move. “My house is not for sale at any price,” she said. “I was with my husband here for 46 years and I have my memories.” | |
| Fighting back tears, she said the stress of the fight against the runway – and particularly a letter sent by Heathrow authorities last year after a commission recommended it should expand – had contributed to her husband’s death. His six medals for wartime service in the RAF were in her hand, along with a large photograph of him. | |
| “Nobody is talking about 10,500 people being made homeless by a government that is supposed to be compassionate,” she said. “I’m a Conservative and I have always been, but they will never get my vote again.” | “Nobody is talking about 10,500 people being made homeless by a government that is supposed to be compassionate,” she said. “I’m a Conservative and I have always been, but they will never get my vote again.” |
| While some of Harmondsworth will be spared, nearby Longford is due to disappear altogether. It will become a car park at the end of the new runway. One Longford resident, who asked not to be named because he works at Heathrow, said his 80-year-old neighbour had been in tears when he spoke to him on Tuesday morning. | While some of Harmondsworth will be spared, nearby Longford is due to disappear altogether. It will become a car park at the end of the new runway. One Longford resident, who asked not to be named because he works at Heathrow, said his 80-year-old neighbour had been in tears when he spoke to him on Tuesday morning. |
| The man said his neighbour needed kidney dialysis at a local hospital every other day, adding: “Where is he going to move to? He’s not going to find another house, another village. He has lived there since before Heathrow, he was born there. He will never have people supporting him like they do in the village when he is sick. This is totally unfair on people like him.” | The man said his neighbour needed kidney dialysis at a local hospital every other day, adding: “Where is he going to move to? He’s not going to find another house, another village. He has lived there since before Heathrow, he was born there. He will never have people supporting him like they do in the village when he is sick. This is totally unfair on people like him.” |
| The man said the compensation was unlikely to cover what he paid eight years ago for his home in Longford. He added: “I’m not moving, and a lot of us feel the same. There’s no point in me moving. Where can I afford to go?” | |
| Sandeep Chopra, who has run the Harmondsworth village shop for six years, said the third runway would destroy his life: “I will lose everything – my business, my house. It’s not easy going somewhere and starting again.” | |
| He said he had a large family that included his wife and three children, his parents, brother and sister, who received no benefits from the government. “We all depend on this shop,” he added. | He said he had a large family that included his wife and three children, his parents, brother and sister, who received no benefits from the government. “We all depend on this shop,” he added. |
| Harmondsworth was a “proper village”, Chopra said, with little trouble and friendly neighbours. “It’s a residents’ shop,” he said of his business. “People love the community, and they support us.” | |
| Keveren – who was born in nearby Sipson and whose grandparents had worked the land before Heathrow was built – said giving up was not an option for the villagers. | |
| “I have faith in the legal challenges that a number of councils are going to make. And if the legal challenge fails, then in the end all we have left is direct action,” he said. |