LONDON, Aug 12: Climate change campaigners began setting up camp on Sunday ahead of protests at Britain's Heathrow airport, which may spell chaos for summer travellers.

The protesters erected marquees and installed toilets near London's Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, two days ahead of the start of expected protests.

They say they have “legally occupied” the site, which is on the route of a proposed third runway at Heathrow and is around 800 metres from the headquarters of airport operator BAA, owned by Spanish construction and services group Ferrovial.

A week-long “climate action” camp is due to be staged from Tuesday to demonstrate against climate change and the proposed new runway.

There will be a day of action next Sunday, although what form it will take will not be decided until the campaigners have been on the camp for the first few days, a spokeswoman told BBC Television.

A similar camp last year close to the Drax power station in Yorkshire by 400 protesters led to 40 arrests.

The Heathrow protest is expected to cause disruption during one of the busiest times of the year for the airport, which is due to be used by 1.5 million passengers during the week.

Mark Bullock, managing director of Heathrow Airport, said many of them would be “innocent families going on their summer holidays”.

He said BAA had “always accepted the right of protesters to protest lawfully” but those using the airport had rights too.

“We believe that there is an important debate to be had over climate change, but we do not believe direct action against the airport is appropriate,” he said.

Gemma Davis, a spokeswoman for the Camp for Climate Change, said disruption to passengers was not the main aim.

“We're not here to try to disrupt passengers; we're here to try to disrupt BAA,” she told the BBC, but conceded that disruption to airport users would be an unintended consequence.

“Climate change is the biggest issue going. If we don't take action now on climate change then we're really facing an enormous catastrophe,” she added.

BAA won a court injunction on Monday barring one group of environmental activists from taking disruptive action during the protests, but peaceful and lawful protests can still go ahead.

The High Court ruling has restricted the actions of Plane Stupid, one of the organisers of the protest.

BAA had tried to ban people from four different groups.

Environmental umbrella group AirportWatch said that would have hit millions of its members in its affiliated bodies, which include groups as diverse as Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth.

BAA runs London airports Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, and four other airports in Britain.—Reuters