Manchester Airport bosses have won a High Court injunction in a bid to prevent the ‘strong probability’ that Just Stop Oil activists will attempt to break onto the airfield, climb on top of planes and glue themselves to the runways to cause a huge summer of travel disruption.
It means it will be possible to speedily jail protesters for contempt of court rather than take action under the Public Order Act or airport bylaws, breaches of which can take time to get through the courts, often result in no more than a fine and which are viewed by some protesters as ‘more of a goal than a deterrent’.
Just Stop Oil has promised ‘direct action’ at airports across the country this summer and last month used an angle grinder to cut a hole in the perimeter fence at Stansted Airport before two planes were spray-painted orange. Manchester Airport bosses fear it could be next and they have now been granted an injunction by a High Court judge.
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It is designed to keep the airport, which at the moment is handling up to 110,000 passengers each day, up and running.
The order signed by Judge Coe KC states: “If you the within defendants or any of you disobey this order or instruct or encourage others to breach this order you may be held to be in contempt of court and may be imprisoned, fined or have your assets seized.
“Any other person who knows of this order and does anything which helps or permits the defendants or persons unknown to breach the terms of this order may also be held in contempt of court and maybe imprisoned, fined or have their assets seized.”
The order is made on behalf of Manchester Airport PLC, Stansted Airport Ltd, East Midlands International Airport Ltd (all part of Manchester Airports Group), Airport City (Manchester) Ltd (which covers an area beside the airport where airline suppliers are based) and Manchester Airport Car Park Ltd.
It prohibits any protesters from taking action at those airports without permission, naming Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
It prevents protestors from ‘entering, occupying or remaining on any part of Manchester Airport’ without consent, and it stipulates that ‘affixing’ people to other people or objects is forbidden as is ‘impeding access to or enjoyment of’ Manchester Airport where that is ‘by blocking any entrance or otherwise’.
The order prohibits would-be protesters from ‘blocking or obstructing the free and safe passage of traffic onto or along or across the highways within Manchester Airport’. It also stipulates people carrying out such a protest should leave the airport if requested by police.
The order is indefinite but subject to a ‘periodic review’ within 12 months of the date it was signed, July 5, and the judge said it would remain open for anyone to come to court to challenge the injunction.
A map of the area around the airport covered by the order has also been published, while copies of the map and the court order have been erected around the perimeter of the airport.
The order has been emailed to Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
In the legal papers applying for the injunction, it was argued Manchester, East Midland and Stansted airports had become ‘explicit targets for environmental protest’.
It quoted a Just Stop Oil tweet dated September 13 about disruption to highways which stated: “Disruption is frustrating, but we have no other choice. Fossil fuel companies have taken out private injunctions that makes protests impossible at oil refineries, oil depots and even petrol stations…”
A Just Stop Oil meeting on March 9 in Birmingham discussed ‘direct action at airports across the UK’ this summer and advocated ‘cutting through fences and gluing themselves to runway tarmac, cycling in circles on runways, climbing on to planes to prevent them from taking off, staging sit-ins at terminals ‘day after day’ to stop passengers getting inside airports’, according to the legal papers.
The claim quoted a statement from the Just Stop Oil website which said: “SO WHAT’S THE PLAN? Our Government doesn’t give a f*** about its responsibilities. The country is in ruins. You know it, I know, they know it. That means it’s up to us to come together and be the change we need.
“We need bold, un-ignorable action that confronts the fossil fuel elites. We refuse to comply with a system which is killing millions around the world, and that’s why we have declared airports a site of nonviolent civil resistance. We can’t do this alone, we have a plan for this Summer, are you willing help make this happen?”
The statement went on: “This summer, Just Stop Oil will be taking action at airports. As the grass becomes scorched, hosepipe bans kick in and the heat of the climate crisis enters peoples’ minds, our resistance will put the spotlight on the heaviest users of fossil fuels and call everyone into action with us.
“We’ll work in teams of between 10-14 people willing to risk arrest from all over the UK. We need to be a minimum of 200 people to make this happen, but we’ll be prepared to scale in size as our numbers increase. Exact dates and more details are coming. Our plan can send shockwaves around the world and finish oil and gas.”
The legal papers point to a Just Stop Oil fundraising page which is said to state: “Cat’s out the bag. Just Stop Oil will take action at airports. The secret is out — and our new actions are going to be big.
“We’re going so big that we can’t even tell you the full plan, but know this —Just Stop Oil will be taking our most radical action yet this summer. We’ll betaking action at sites of key importance to the fossil fuel industry; super polluting airports.”
The claim pointed to Just Stop Oil action which took place at Stansted Airport on June 20 which included on protester using an angle grinder to cut a hole in the perimeter fence of the airport and two others ‘trespassing the perimeter fence’ and spray painting two planes orange.
There was a ‘strong probability’ would mount similar protests, including at Manchester Airport, according to the claim.
It argued: “Airports are particularly vulnerable, because of the potential for even relatively slight disruption to produce significant adverse consequences for large numbers of innocent members of the travelling public. Even when all that a protester achieves is relatively modest delay to a flight, the knock-on effects can be significant for the travelling public, not only because of the multitude of individual travel plans thereby immediately disturbed but also because of the risks (by way of example only) of aeroplanes missing take-off and/or landing slots, leading to flights failing to reach their intended destinations in timely fashion with knock-on effects for other flights, or because the delays might exhaust the time allowable before flight/cabin crews must be relieved, but with the relief crews in the wrong places and no alternatives readily to be found.”
By-laws at Manchester Airport already exist forbidding protest while the Public Order Act could also be used against protesters but these would potentially only result in a fine, according to the claim.
“The explicit threats mentioned above indicate that breaching the general criminal law is regarded more as a goal, than as a deterrent, by at least some campaigners,” it says.
