Runway activists fight for 'grannies'

Campaigners against a third runway at Heathrow were today launching an "adopt-a-granny" scheme.

Hundreds of young activists from Plane Stupid will team up with mostly retired residents of villages that BAA wants to demolish. The pairings were due to start at 3pm in Harmondsworth, with a view to "extending the scheme" in the lead-up to the formal application for the runway. Scaffolding and piles of tyres will be erected around houses.

Bradley Day, 22, said: "I'll be camping on rooftops, on lawns, in trees if that will stop BAA bulldozing homes." Lynne Davies, 60, who has lived in Sipson for 50 years, said: "I think this scheme is wonderful because it gives us hope."