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John Stewart (campaigner)

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For other people named John Stewart, see John Stewart (disambiguation).
John Stewart
John Stewart in 2010
John Stewart in 2010
Born1950 (age 73–74)
Rhodesia
OccupationEnvironmental campaigner
Movement
AwardsSheila McKechnie Foundation Long-Term Achievement Award
2016

John Stewart (born 1950) is a British environmental campaigner who specializes in transport issues and noise pollution.[1] In the 1980s and 1990s, he helped coordinate a national network of community groups that successfully campaigned against the British government's then-£23-billion road-building programme. Later, Stewart led the successful campaign against a third runway at Heathrow Airport. He has several times been recognized as one of Britain's most effective environmental campaigners.[2][3][4]

Early life

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Stewart was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and raised in Edinburgh by a family from the Scottish Highlands. After studying social policy at Bristol Polytechnic, he moved to London in the early 1980s and has lived there ever since.[1][5]

Road campaigning

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Stewart began campaigning in the early 1980s, initially on the issue of better public transport.[5][6]

Stewart has recalled that he began fighting road-building schemes in the mid-1980s after taking a wrong turn walking through London and finding himself alongside the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach Road: "I was hit by a wall of fast-moving traffic all the way from the Blackwall Tunnel to the Bow flyover... And as I looked at the tower blocks, flats and estates within yards of the road and saw the children playing beside the roaring traffic, I thought: 'never again should this kind of road be built'".[7]

Stewart later became chair of ALARM (All London Against the Road-building Menace), an umbrella group helping to link 150 local community campaigns in London.[8][9] In the early 1990s, working with Twyford Down activist and poet Emma Must and transport campaigner Jonathan Bray, Stewart transformed ALARM into a national organization, ALARM-UK, to give 250 local campaigns a more powerful voice against the UK's national road-building programme.[10][11] The organization's approach was summarized in the headline of a 1995 Guardian article as "Faith, hope and anger: An alliance between the respectable middle classes and radical activists is taking on that scourge of city life the car".[12] As Stewart told ALARM-UK's inaugural national conference in 1993: "The Department of Transport's nightmare is that isolated local groups that have sprung up to fight a road scheme will start talking to each other, sharing information and co-ordinating campaigns. We want to make that nightmare come true".[13]

By the mid-1990s, virtually all of the UK roads programme had been cancelled: the original 600 planned roads were cut down to just 50 by the Labour government elected in 1997.[4]

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

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From 2020 onwards his campaigning efforts have been focused on opposition to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, putting him at odds with almost all other transport and environmental campaigners and campaign groups including, but not limited to, Sustrans, Living Streets, Greenpeace, London Cycling Campaign and Cycling UK (who support LTNs as part of a suite of measures to reduce motor traffic dominance and improve conditions for walking and cycling).[14][15][16][17][18]

In 2023 he set up "Social Environmental Justice" which campaigns against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. The group and its members have repeatedly been quoted by Steve Bird at The Telegraph[19][20][21] (which has a consistent negative editorial position on climate and active travel[22]) and Andrew Ellson at The Times, who has published numerous anti-LTN and anti-active-travel stories.[23][24]

Aircraft noise

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With the roads programme in decline, Stewart switched his attention to tackling noise and nuisance from aircraft.[25][26] Over the next decade, he established what John Vidal of The Guardian described as "possibly the most formidable coalition ever formed against any single building project in Britain" to oppose the controversial third runway at Heathrow.[1][27] Using similar alliance-building tactics to those he'd developed at ALARM-UK, he became chair of the group HACAN (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) ClearSkies, representing 60 community groups and 5,000 other individuals opposed to Heathrow Airport's proposed expansion plans.[28][29] Stewart's approach, "unity of purpose, diversity of tactics", was credited with enabling radical direct action protesters to work alongside conventional campaigners, council leaders, and MPs,[30] and the runway was scrapped in 2010.[31][32] Stewart later commented: "Never in UK history had the aviation industry suffered such a rebuff".[33] The long-term outcome proved uncertain, however. After a further decade of political and legal debate, in December 2020, the UK Supreme Court paved the way for Heathrow Airport to seek planning permission for a third runway.[34]

Main article: Expansion of Heathrow Airport

Other activities

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Stewart has also campaigned more generally on noise, which he describes as "the forgotten pollutant", and, in 2016, published a book on the topic titled Why Noise Matters.[6][35]

Stewart has campaigned for road safety, as a former chair of RoadPeace (which advocates for victims of road accidents) and the Slower Speeds Initiative.[36] In 2003, commenting on the death and injury toll from road accidents, he observed: "Of all the wars taking place in the world, the biggest is the war on the roads".[37]

Stewart's high-profile Heathrow campaigning has occasionally made him a target for personal legal action. In 2007, along with two members of the Plane Stupid campaign group and a climate change activist, he was named on a High Court injunction, obtained by BAA, which sought to prevent people from "disrupting the operation of the airport".[38][39] In 2011, after being detained and interrogated at JFK Airport, Stewart was barred from entering the United States for undisclosed reasons believed to be linked with his campaigning.[40][41]

In December 2021, Stewart wrote a controversial article for the Telegraph arguing that "low traffic neighbourhoods are inherently unfair".[42][43]

Stewart has also served as chair of AirportWatch (an alliance of local groups opposing airport expansion), the UK Noise Association, and the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly Transport 2000).[36] He is Vice President of UECNA (Union Européenne Contre les Nuisances Aériennes / European Union Against Aircraft Nuisance).[44]

Stewart stood down as chair of HACAN in 2020, but remains chair of HACAN East, a sister campaign representing communities impacted by the expansion of London City Airport.[45]

Awards and recognition

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In 2006, The Guardian listed Stewart as number 82 of the top 100 green campaigners of all time, one place behind Mahatma Gandhi.[3]

In 2008, he was voted Britain's most effective environmental campaigner by The Independent on Sunday: "The little-known John Stewart, who leads the onslaught against a third runway at Heathrow, soundly beats far more high-profile figures – from Jonathon Porritt to Zac Goldsmith, from Sir David Attenborough to Prince Charles – to take the honour".[4]

In 2009, he was one of three activists shortlisted for "Grassroots Campaigner of the Year" in the Observer Ethical Awards.[46]

In 2016, Stewart won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation Long-Term Achievement Award for his three decades of environmental campaigning.[2]

See also

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Publications

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  • Stewart, John; McManus, Francis; Rodgers, Nigel; Weedon, Val; Bronzaft, Arline (2016). Why Noise Matters: A Worldwide Perspective on the Problems, Policies and Solutions. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781134934102. Retrieved 1 July 2022.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Vidal, John (10 January 2009). "'Heathrow is a monster. It must be fed': Saturday Interview: John Stewart". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b "SMK Campaigner Awards 2016" (PDF). Sheila McKechnie Foundation. p. 14. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b Adam, David (28 November 2006). "Earthshakers: the top 100 green campaigners of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "The IoS Green List: Britain's top 100 environmentalists". Independent on Sunday. 12 October 2008. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b "John Stewart: A one-man eco-industry". The Independent on Sunday. 12 October 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Noise in the UK – with John Stewart". Soundproofist. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  7. ^ Stewart, John (20 October 2013). "Sinking the Silvertown Tunnel". Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  8. ^ Stewart, John; Jack, Nic; Rodker, Ernest (18 December 1991). "Seeing red over the failure to drive home the pollution message". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Smith, Michael (2 February 1990). "London's Great Undertaking". The Guardian. p. 25. With the government prepared to spend billions of pounds on a massive road-building programme in London, Michael Smith questions the logic behind the proposals and asks whether the plans will increase traffic chaos rather than reduce it.
  10. ^ Vidal, John (5 August 1993). "Freed protesters fight for city park". The Guardian. p. 7.
  11. ^ Stewart, John; Bray, Jonathan; Must, Emma. "Roadblock: How people power is wrecking the roads programme". Alarm UK. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
  12. ^ Ghazi, Polly (12 March 1995). "Faith, hope and anger: An alliance between the respectable middle classes and radical activists is taking on that scourge of city life the car". The Guardian. p. 13.
  13. ^ Tickell, Oliver (29 January 1993). "Environment: Raising a nightmare barrier". The Guardian.
  14. ^ "The truth about low traffic neighbourhoods". Possible. 2023-01-19. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  15. ^ "Low Traffic Neighbourhoods". London Cycling Campaign. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  16. ^ "Low traffic neighbourhoods". Living Streets. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  17. ^ "What is a low traffic neighbourhood?". Sustrans. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  18. ^ "Watch: Low traffic neighbourhoods: who are they for?". Greenpeace UK. 2020-12-17. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  19. ^ Bird, Steve (2023-10-28). "Academic caught on camera tearing down LTN protest poster cleared by university". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  20. ^ Bird, Steve (2023-09-16). "Cycling charity Sustrans handed £92m in grants to introduce low traffic neighbourhoods". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  21. ^ Bird, Steve (2023-07-01). "The flaws in the so-called independent study that 'proves' LTNs work". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
  22. ^ Cooke, Joey Grostern, Michaela Herrmann and Phoebe (2023-11-23). "Revealed: Scale of The Telegraph's Climate Change 'Propaganda'". DeSmog. Retrieved 2023-11-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Ellson, Andrew (13 February 2021). "Low traffic zones 'force cars into streets where poorer people live'". The Times. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  24. ^ Ellson, Andrew (24 October 2022). "Councils that closed rat runs now have even more cars on their roads". The Times. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  25. ^ Benham, Mark (11 April 2001). "Aircraft noise 'is blighting south London'". The Evening Standard. p. 17.
  26. ^ Laing, Aislinn (21 April 2010). "Campaigners call for more plane-free days". Daily Telegraph. p. 11.
  27. ^ India, Rakusen (19 June 2019). "What oil companies knew: the great climate cover-up: India Rakusen with Bill McKibben and John Stewart". Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  28. ^ Griggs, Steven; Howarth, David (2016). "7: The Third Runway at Heathrow". The politics of airport expansion in the United Kingdom: Hegemony, policy and the rhetoric of 'sustainable aviation'. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526112125. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  29. ^ Nulman, Eugene (2016). "3: Case Histories of Three Climate Campaigns". Climate Change and Social Movements: Civil Society and the Development of National Climate Change Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 24–57. ISBN 9781137468796. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  30. ^ "John Stewart reveals how Heathrow expansion was stopped in Victory Against All The Odds". Your Local Guardian. 12 September 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  31. ^ "Heathrow's 3rd runway jettisoned". The Daily Mirror. 13 May 2010. p. 8.
  32. ^ Stewart, John (27 March 2012). "Heathrow's third runway is not happening – move on". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  33. ^ Hicks, Celeste (2022). Expansion Rebellion: Using the Law to Fight a Runway and Save the Planet. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526162342.
  34. ^ Carrington, Damian (16 December 2020). "Top UK court overturns block on Heathrow's third runway". Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  35. ^ Stewart, John; McManus, Francis; Rodgers, Nigel; Weedon, Val; Bronzaft, Arline (2016). Why Noise Matters: A Worldwide Perspective on the Problems, Policies and Solutions. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781134934102. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  36. ^ a b "About us: Our Trustees: John Stewart". Foundation for Integrated Transport. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  37. ^ Peev, Gerri (11 May 2003). "Black Boxes in Motor Cars: Campaigners' bid to cut deaths on roads". Sunday Mercury (Birmingham). p. 2.
  38. ^ Ormsby, Avril (6 August 2007). "BAA wins Heathrow protest injunction". Reuters. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  39. ^ Gillett, Robbie (13 August 2007). "The mother of all injunctions". New Statesman. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  40. ^ Murphy, Joe (27 February 2013). "Heathrow campaigner barred from US was on secret blacklist". The Evening Standard. p. 12.
  41. ^ Sheppard, Kate (6 October 2011). "Why This Prominent UK Enviro Caused a National Security Freakout... And why the feds were so interested in super glue". Mother Jones. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  42. ^ Stewart, John (12 December 2021). "Low traffic neighbourhoods are inherently unfair". Telegraph. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  43. ^ Reid, Carlton (13 December 2021). "Why is anti-roads campaigner John Stewart against LTNs?". The Spokesmen. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  44. ^ "Who we are - UECNA.EU". European Union Against Aircraft Nuisance. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  45. ^ "Change at top of Heathrow anti-noise campaign group". Hillingdon Times. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  46. ^ "Observer Ethical Awards shortlist announced". The Guardian/Observer. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
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