100 signatures reached
To: Director of Major Applications & Plans Mark Southgate, The Planning Inspectorate
Whitemoss Landfill Western Extension - Say No to Toxic Waste
Dear Sir,
Please listen seriously to the objections against this landfill extension and consider the views of organisations and people opposing this tip, including MP Rosie Cooper. There are vast implications for public health, and potentially devastating effects on the environment. The geology of this area is such that recent bore -holing by United Utilities for the new multi-million infrastructure development at Bickerstaffe Water Treatment Works would be under threat from polluted leachate water. This site is not suitable for a national toxic waste dump for many reasons.
Why is this important?
The World Health Organisation's Declaration of Human Rights talks about everyone having the right to clean air. This development thus infringes upon the basic human right because it will have a 24/7 burn-off of gases. With Stocks Hall Nursing Home not 100 yards away, football pitches where hundreds of children play right next door, and houses looking onto it, vulnerable people, children and families are under threat of losing this basic human right, not just in the surrounding area but further afield too because of prevailing winds and underground water courses and extensive old coal mine workings. Strange odours already exude from the existing tip and can be smelt in the area, so obviously these emissions, with an unknown cocktail of chemicals, will adversely affect public health.
People in the area have not been notified because of a loop-hole in the law as it is a national infrastructure plan rather than a local plan the latter of which would go through normal planning application processes with proper consultation. So local people have not had much time to raise objections before the dead-line of 11.59 p.m. on Friday, February the 28th, 2014, but the feeling of opposition is strong that there is a rising tide of protest.
