Our personal profiles given to police, claim Heathrow activists

Thousands of Heathrow campaigners fear government officials have handed over their personal details to police.

Demonstrators today described the tactic by the Department for Transport as "tantamount to blackmail".

Civil servants have been compiling dossiers on opponents of the £9 billion third runway scheme and activists fear personal data was passed to police before January's narrow Commons approval of the scheme.

Linda McCutcheon, secretary of No Third Runway Advisory Group, fears video footage, private letters and personal information has been used against her. The 63-year-old of Sipson, the village where 700 homes face demolition for the runway, said: "I'm disgusted that our Government is using such sinister tactics to keep us in check — it's tantamount to blackmail."

The "communications directorate" was exposed in a written Parliamentary answer from Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, who said his officials wanted to "understand the views" of those "with an interest in transport policy". A DfT spokeswoman said: "The information gathered was readily available in the public domain."