Environmental activists set up camp at Heathrow

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) Climate change campaigners began setting up camp today ahead of protests at London's Heathrow airport, which are expected to cause chaos for summer travellers.

The protestors started to set up a base near Heathrow, erecting marquees and installing toilets, two days ahead of the start of expected protests.

They say have ''legally occupied'' the site, which is on the route of a proposed third runway at Heathrow and is around 800 metres from the headquarters of airport operator BAA.

The week-long ''climate action'' camp is due to be staged from Tuesday to demonstrate against climate change and the proposed new runway.

It is expected to cause disruption during one of the busiest times of the year for the airport, which is due to be used by 1.5 million passengers during the week.

Mark Bullock, managing director of Heathrow Airport, said many of them would be ''innocent families going on their summer holidays''.

He said BAA had ''always accepted the right of protestors to protest lawfully'', but said those using the airport ''have rights too''.

Gemma Davis, a spokeswoman for the Camp for Climate Change, said disruption to passengers was not the main aim.

''We're not here to try to disrupt passengers; we're here to try to disrupt BAA,'' she told BBC News 24, but conceded that disruption to airport users would be an unintended consequence.

''Climate change is the biggest issue going; if we don't take action now on climate change then we're really facing an enormous catastrophe,'' she added.

''The ability to survive on this planet is what's at stake.'' ''People need to take action and this is why we've set up this camp where people can come along and find out all the issues about climate change, talk about what we need to do, learn about how we can live sustainably and take action against 'climate criminals' like BAA.'' BAA won a court injunction tomorrow barring one group of environmental activists from taking disruptive action during the protests, but peaceful and lawful protests can still go ahead.

The High Court ruling has restricted the actions of Plane Stupid, one of the organisers of the protest.

BAA had tried to ban people from four different groups from taking part.

Environmental umbrella group AirportWatch said that would have hit millions of its members in its affiliated bodies, which include groups as diverse as Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth.

Speaking ahead of the protests, Bullock added on Sunday: ''We do not accept that passengers and staff should be harassed or intimidated by direct action.'' ''We believe that there is an important debate to be had over climate change, but we do not believe direct action against the airport is appropriate.'' BAA runs London airports Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, and four other airports in Britain. It was bought by Ferrovial for 10.1 billion pounds last year.

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