Ever-vigilant policeman Colin Wiggins sees a flare of light soar into the cloudy skies above Leeds Bradford Airport. “What was that?” he says, with some concern.

It turns out to be nothing more than a firework, but PC Wiggins’s reaction is a marker of the heightened state of alert that people who patrol airports find themselves in nowadays.

The country has been moved to the second-highest level of security alert, meaning that a terrorist attack is now “highly likely” and that the threat to us all is “severe”.

And it is a threat they take very seriously at the Yeadon airport.

Its response is Project Griffin, a partnership of police, airport workers, businesses and residents to increase surveillance at Leeds Bradford.

The small army, led by chairman Mark Winterbourne, Colin Wiggins and his fellow-PC Andy Leat, was set up at the end of last year to raise awareness of the possible carnage a terrorist attack could cause.

Mr Winterbourne, 42, says: “It is a kind of business watch in the community around Leeds Bradford Airport so that we operate in a way that everyone is vigilant so that we can reduce the threat of terrorism.

“I’m an aviation nut anyway, so I would like to think I would be able to spot something a bit sinister, but it is becoming harder and harder because terrorists are finding new methods.

“The police will tell you that we have to move with the times.”

These “sinister” clues may be as unassuming as a cardboard box that shouldn’t be there; a sweating passenger pacing up and down while waiting to board their plane or someone fiddling with their rucksacks in the boarding lounge.

It is important this vigilance continues outside the airport’s perimeter fence, and that is why Project Griffin has recruited businesses such as newsagents and fish and chip restaurants in Yeadon, and even farmers in the surrounding countryside, to add to the pairs of eyes and ears already keeping watch.

As Mr Winterbourne explains: “If somebody was going to launch a surface-to-air missile, the chances are that they would do it out in the sticks, not next to the airport, because they may not be seen and it would be an easy getaway.

“People have to ask themselves if they recognise anything suspicious and, if they do, phone their suspicions into us.

“If it’s nothing, it will only be a ten-minute wasted call, but could be worth it for the sake of lives possibly being lost.”

Project Griffin was started at Gatwick Airport in 2008 and has since spread across the globe.

At Yeadon, awareness days are organised for Project Griffin members every eight weeks, and members of the local community are informed about what is going on through The Griff, a monthly newsletter delivered to more than 800 residents and businesses.

The next awareness day, on February 3, will include a demonstration from the Army’s bomb squad.

Mr Winterbourne says: “Having done the awareness day myself, and having attended the ones we have run, it has given me the opportunity to sit back and see people’s reactions, and some of it is shocking. A lot of the footage is very intense.

“We are raising awareness of terrorism, the history of terrorism and understanding what is happening in the world today.”

Derek Brickell, a lecturer at the aviation academy at Leeds Bradford, is one of the members, as are most of the academy’s 250 students – an extra 500 pairs of vigilant eyes, he says.

Mr Brickell adds: “When there is a terrorist incident, it is at the forefront of everybody’s minds, but as the weeks roll by with nothing happening you get complacent. This is about keeping that awareness going.

“In the past, the police have not been good at sharing intelligence, but what they are doing now is giving people more information about what is happening out there and helping people feel part of that security process.”

Inspector Adrian Barnes, the police airport commander at Leeds Bradford, says: “The police are fully supportive of Project Griffin and will act on information as and when it comes in from the local airport committee.

“This is an opportunity to create a partnership of staff, residents, businesses and recreational users of the airport and the surrounding area. They will be our eyes and ears in our fight against crime and terrorism and those who would use the airport for their criminal and anti-social behaviour.”

For more information on Project Griffin, visit the website at projectgriffin.lbia.org.

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To report any suspicious incidents at the airport, call the Leeds Bradford International Airport Neighbourhood Policing Team on (01274) 471474, or 999 in an emergency.