LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg helped dig an orchard in Sipson on Friday to show his opposition to a third Heathrow runway.
He visited the Heathrow village alongside Gavin and Stacey actress Alison Steadman, Richard Briers from the Good Life, and poet Carol-Ann Duffy.
They were there to dig an orchard at a site acquired by Greenpeace, which is now the property of 60,000 'airplot owners' around the world.
A tree has been adopted by a group of rebel Labour MPs, by David Cameron and Conservative MPs and another by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and his MPs.
The planting of the orchard represents the re-introduction of the Cox apple breed into the area and is designed to act as a potent symbol of the determination by politicians and the local community to stop the runway, save Sipson’s homes and school and fight climate change.
The Cox apple was first bred in the borough in the 1850s by Richard Cox, who is buried on the site earmarked for a new runway and whose body might still be exhumed if the development goes ahead.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said: "The Government is absolutely wrong to stubbornly push ahead with a third runway at Heathrow. How can Gordon Brown go to Copenhagen and credibly call for big reductions in carbon when he has such a dire environmental track record at home?
"A third runway at Heathrow would be a disaster for the local area as well as a disaster for the whole country."
The orchard plot is located behind the William IV pub in Sipson, on the junction of Harmondsworth Lane and Sipson Road.
