Civil servants are compiling dossiers on opponents of Heathrow Airport expansion and handing them over to police, it emerged yesterday. Communications staff at the Department for Transport are gathering data on legitimate objectors to the £9billion third runway and offering the information to Scotland Yard.

Last night, Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker warned that the activities of the DfT's supposedly non-partisan civil servants were another step towards a 'Stasi-like police state'. DfT officials monitored anyone speaking out against the planned third runway during the run-up to January's narrow Commons approval of the scheme. Potentially the names of tens of thousands of innocent people from websites, press releases, news articles and public consultations were trawled over by bureaucrats, who then briefed detectives.

Critics suggest that even those who write letters to the DfT expressing concerns about the third runway will be checked out and the police notified.

The existence of the 'communications directorate' charged with monitoring opposition to a third runway was revealed in a written Parliamentary answer from Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon. Mr Hoon said his officials sought to 'understand the views' of those 'with an interest in transport policy'.  But he admitted that information was being passed to police in the run-up to protests to ensure public safety.

He said: 'It is entirely appropriate that the department discussed safety arrangements with the relevant police forces.'

Read the full article in The Daily Mail.


Sorry Buff, it's entirely inappropriate for the DfT to behave in this way.

What would appropriate however, would be a police investigation into how a £1.7 million property empire was built with taxpayers money, and why the DfT repeatedly met with BAA prior to the decision in January when a blanket ban was supposed to be in operation.

In case the police aren't clear where to start, the names Geoff Hoon and David Gray have already been mentioned in Parliament.