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Mrs Justice Swift has struck out BAA’s application for a sweeping injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 against Airport Watch, an umbrella organisation supported by the National Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which between them have five million members.
She found no evidence that members of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise and the No Third Runway Action Group supported or planned any direct action, and ordered BAA to pay the legal costs of those groups.
She did, however, grant BAA a civil injunction against three individuals and a protest group called Plane Stupid. The injunction covers the land inside the airport boundary and BAA buildings directly linked with the airport’s operation.
Justice director Roger Smith says: “BAA has been high handed and somewhat ill-advised. It was little less than bizarre not to have liaised with Transport for London when BAA’s demand was for an injunction which specifically covered the Piccadilly Line. There must be some questions about the competence of that decision.”
