A CALDICOT town councillor who was arrested after chaining himself to the entrance of Southampton Airport has spoken out about his protest.

Councillor Anthony Perrett, 28, of Willow Close, Caldicot, was one of seven people arrested and charged with aggravated trespass after the protest by Plane Stupid on Tuesday.

The group erected tents at the main entrance in a bid to turn the airport into a climate refugee camp to raise the awareness of the consequences of the continued expansion of the aviation industry.

Cllr Perrett has represented the Dewstow ward of Caldicot since May 2008 when he was elected with 205 votes as an independent councillor.

He said: “Our main message is that all journeys that can be done equally as well by train, should be done by train. It’s such a short-term view of things that you can just fly around willy-nilly using fossil fuels.

“Essentially all this high level CO2 is going to cause climate warming which will result in rising sea levels across the world. Our main issue is that there are nearly two million people in low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, who are going to be homeless and end up as refugees.”

The group set up camp at the airport on Tuesday morning, but prior to turning the airport into a “climate refugee camp,” the group also formally submitted a planning application with Eastleigh Borough Council to turn the airport into refugee housing.

Police arrived at around 10.30am, but the protestors were not removed until almost 1pm. All seven were released from custody at around 1am on Wednesday morning and bailed to appear before Southampton magistrates’ court on March 3.

Cllr Perrett said: “We are trying to get people to realise that our lifestyle is not sustainable. We’re not saying never fly, but let’s save the aviation fuel for flights that are absolutely necessary.”