Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Anti-Asbestos campaigners to 'go bananas' against Countryside Properties PLC

Save Spodden Valley campaign | 26.07.2006 01:19 | Ecology | Health | Social Struggles | World

Wednesday 26th July:

Anti-Asbestos campaigners are to ‘go bananas’ this evening outside Rochdale Town Hall from 5.45pm – 6.15pm.

Strict council rules ban placards and banners inside the Town Hall so the campaigners hope to get their point across with Fairtrade soft fruit.



They say the planning system is ‘bananas’ where local council taxpayers have to pay up to £80,000 for a report that heavily criticises the past actions of property speculators who wish to build a £100 million development with a planning fee of just £5500.

Anti-Asbestos campaigners 'go bananas'...
Anti-Asbestos campaigners 'go bananas'...


In December 2004, Countryside Properties, MMC Estates and Rathbone Jersey Ltd submitted a joint planning application for over 600 homes and a children’s nursery on the site of what was the world’s biggest asbestos factory- Turner & Newall in the Spodden Valley of Rochdale.



The developers’ Environmental Statement (at para 5.30) concluded:



“Of particular note is the absence of any asbestos contamination”



BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme has just broadcast an investigation into the controversial planning application.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/04/2006_30_tue.shtml

The BBC broadcast about the 300 page Independent report, just published by environmental consultants Atkins Global, concludes:

---That previous site testing for contamination was seriously inadequate;

---Previous testing omitted detectable traces of asbestos and other contaminants that could cause a risk to human health;

---No effective air sampling has been done on the site;

---The methods of soil sampling are unreliable;

---Conclusions drawn from the developers’ tests are unreliable and the analysis used is questionable.

---The asbestos dumping in the North of the site could be up to 4.5 metres thick.



National radio listeners heard an interview with Ken Smith, Rochdale Council’s Head of Planning, who said:


“I’m not surprised by the [Atkins Reports] findings. I think it has confirmed what we already knew, that the information which has been submitted and the extent of the investigations which had been undertaken prior to the application being submitted were inadequate.

“It’s not just a matter of doing further work and investigations. I think they [the developers] need to go right back to the beginning and look at the whole submission again- including the Environmental Statement.

“They have got to prove that the site can be developed satisfactorily - and they have a lot of work to do to prove that.

“Until they satisfy us that the site can be developed safely, then, they [the developers] don’t have a chance”.



During this evening’s demonstration, campaigners will hand out leaflets thanking council officers and councillors, MPs and MEP’s of all parties for their continued commitment to health and safety.

A huge bill for £80,000 (stamped “overdue”) to Countryside Properties, MMC Estates and Rathbone Jersey Ltd will be presented to the Leader of the Council, Cllr Alan Taylor and Rochdale’s MP, Paul Rowen.




Note to editors:

Rochdale is proud to be a FairTrade Borough.

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium.

A council composting bin will be available for the used banana skins after the event.

Save Spodden Valley campaign
- e-mail: SaveSpoddenValley@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.Spodden-Valley.co.uk

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Some photos from Rochdale Town Hall — Save Spodden Valley campaign

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech