Greenpeace and its celebrity supporters sold the land in 2012, declining an option to retain it until 2014, but some people still visit believing it is theirs

It was, some believed, to be an orchard of perpetual, flourishing resistance, its trees adorned with plaques bearing the names of the great and the good and keeping Heathrow’s third runway at bay forever. In a defining moment of the last anti-Heathrow campaign, Greenpeace, backed by political leaders and celebrities, announced: “We’ve bought a piece of land slap bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site.”

Emma Thompson owned a bit. Alistair McGowan owned a bit. So did Zac Goldsmith, and during 2009 almost 100,000 Britons were persuaded to sign up as beneficial co-owners of the AirPlot to defy the planners. The words “Our climate, our land” were spelt out on the plot in great white letters, and then the planting began. David Cameron had a tree planted for him, Nick Clegg planted his own and the runway plans were shelved.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emma Thompson criticises plans for a third runway at Heathrow in 2009 interview – video

A little over two years later, in January 2012, Greenpeace, McGowan, Thompson and Goldsmith sold the land back for a pound, and the trees died.

The world believed Greenpeace had bought the Airplot in perpetuity, but in fact the charity had quietly agreed to return it to a local landlord. The deal to acquire it for £15,000 included an option for him to buy it back for £1. The landlord effectively offered to renew a lease, but Greenpeace decided to let the land go.

In the village of Sipson, anyone looking for the apple tree adopted by the prime minister will search in vain. Instead there are thistles and five-foot high grass. The plot was hopefully marketed as a paddock when it went on sale again, just as Heathrow was drawing up new plans for a third runway and bending enough ears for Downing Street to appoint a commission to decide whether the airport should have a new runway after all.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest How the Guardian reported the story in January 2009.

By 2013, when Heathrow resubmitted a plan to bulldoze Sipson, far from being unable to build on the AirPlot the airport could have simply snapped it up, along with a neighbouring three-bed semi and shed.

It came as a surprise to locals and campaigners to find that the land was no longer in the hands of the environmentalists and their celebrity patrons. Christine Taylor, of Stop Heathrow Expansion, whose family have lived in and around Sipson for decades, said: “No one was more shocked and upset than I was to find out we didn’t in fact own it. We were just honest and believed what we were told.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nick Clegg and Susan Kramer, then the Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park, plant a tree on the site. Photograph: Carl Court/PA

“People who were given a certificate … they were supposed to be owners. We would have replanted the trees or done something, but it was a bolt from the blue.”

Next week the commission appointed by Cameron – who once declared, “no ifs, no buts, no third runway” – will give its recommendations on whether Heathrow or Gatwick should have a new runway. The three options Heathrow offered have been narrowed to one new expansion plan that ends yards to the west of the AirPlot, and which would render life unbearable in Sipson, at the very tip of a runway.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alison Steadman and Richard Briers from the Good Life eat apples at a photocall for the orchard. Photograph: Vicki Couchman/Greenpeace

The fate of the wooden plaques marking the trees – the Cox’s Pippin adopted by Cameron’s Conservatives, and the Langley Pippin planted by the actors Alison Steadman and Richard Briers with the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy – is unknown. The landlord, Michael Aslam, said: “They were just thrown away.” And the trees? “They died. Soon after the demonstration the grass was taller than the trees and they rotted, and that was it.”

According to Greenpeace, the trees were alive when it sold the land back to Aslam in January 2012.

The celebrities who technically owned the land have declined to comment. One of the prominent beneficial owners Greenpeace enlisted at the start of its campaign, the environmentalist and Guardian columnist George Monbiot, said he was unaware of the ownership status of the land.

Neither did Greenpeace inform the tens of thousands of supporters who joined up as beneficial co-owners that the property was no longer theirs.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The supposed orchard as it is today. Photograph: Gwyn Topham/The Guardian

Ian West, a campaigner living at Grow Heathrow, a sustainable protest camp that continues independently near the AirPlot, said people still visited Sipson thinking they owned a piece of the land. “It did bring a lot of publicity, but the fact that Greenpeace didn’t have a long-term plan does highlight the different approaches,” he said.

Even if the Davies commission opts for Gatwick, there needs to be a long-term plan to help the blighted area and community survive, West said.

Taylor said she didn’t blame Greenpeace, “though I wish they’d been upfront with us. We could have looked at something with longevity because we knew Heathrow would keep coming back. We do need a piece of land that would be forever.”

Anna Jones, of Greenpeace, said the charity and the three legal owners decided in 2012 against holding on to the land, declining an option to retain it until 2014 for an extra £10,000. “We judged it wasn’t a wise use of supporters’ money. It was a judgment call at that time. We still think it’s very unlikely that the runway will get built.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘No third runway’ signs in the village of Sipson. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

“By everybody pitching in we completely turned the tables … Everybody should be proud and we have an incredible legacy.”

Greenpeace helped win a great battle in 2010 when the coalition overturned plans for a third runway, but while the continued opposition by Greenpeace and likes of Goldsmith is not in doubt, others fear that the prime minister’s pledge to block Heathrow expansion is as perishable as his pippin.

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For Sipson and its residents, the fight goes on. Taylor said: “All those people with little bits of paper that they think will save us. I wish, really.”

• This article was amended after publication on Thursday 25 June to correct the spelling of Alistair McGowan.