Reading West MP Martin Salter is to plant a “runway tree” to mark the twinning of the town with Sipson, the village earmarked for destruction if the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport goes ahead.

This month, celebrities, including actress Alison Steadman (”Abigail’s Party” and “Gavin and Stacey”) and the poet-laureate Carol-Ann Duffy, planted an apple orchard at Sipson, one of the villages that face demolition should the third runway go ahead. Martin Salter is one of many people who have signed up to become a “plot holder” on the land near Sipson which contains the orchard as part of a campaign by Greenpeace to disrupt and delay the building of the runway.

Martin Salter said:-

“I remain a staunch opponent of the third Heathrow runway, and last year organised a cross-party Commons motion against the scheme which I consider an environmental abomination. As a Greenpeace supporter, I am more than happy to be a part owner with 60,000 others of an orchard in West London which is designed to obstruct the building of the runway. It is fitting that here in Reading, which is also under the Heathrow flight path, that we mark our support for communities more badly threatened by these plans than ourselves.”