| CHURCHGOERS should cut their flights to one a year, and then “only if essential”, said Tamsin Omond, a parish administrator who spent several hours on the roof of the House of Commons last week.
Miss Omond, who is 23, gives half her working time to St Mary’s, Primrose Hill, in north-west London, and much other time to Plane Stupid, as an activist. Last week, with four others, she hung banners from the Palace of Westminster roof to protest against the expansion of Heathrow.
On Tuesday, Miss Omond, recently awarded a first-class degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, said that she had spent 12 hours in a police cell, and could be charged for trespass under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, when she surrenders bail in April. The offence carries a maximum tariff of 51 days’ imprisonment and a £5000 fine.
“I was allowed to take a text book into the cell, to carry on my studies for my MA on the environment and social policy,” she said.
People at St Mary’s had been supportive on Sunday. “They knew I had been involved in the climate-change camp; so they had been waiting to see what I would do.
“My Vicar had been talking to me about spiritual development the evening before, and what I was going to do in the future. I told him I was getting more involved in direct action, and he nodded; but I don’t think he realised it meant this.
“If everyone in church took just one flight a year, even that is a bit much, but if they flew only if it was really essential, and if it became a government policy, then that would solve the problem.”
She appealed to London churches to back “Terminal 5 flashmob”. It would be a legal and peaceful protest, run by Greenpeace, at the opening of the new Heathrow Terminal 5 at noon on 31 May.
If global warming was to be halted, tough decisions would have to be taken, she said. “My grandmother lives in Prague. If she was to become ill, then perhaps I would fly, but if I thought that I had more than two days to get there, I would go overland.”
Her Vicar, the Revd Robert Atwell, said: “Tamsin Omond is our conscientious and hard-working parish administrator. Like many people, she has a passionate concern for the environment. Whilst I do not applaud the manner of her personal demonstration, I do support her concern that our environment be protected.”
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