Welbeck

Tucked away amongst the planning applications for new garages and crown cleaning, is an application by Welbeck Waste Management to extend the operating hours of one of Europe's biggest landfill sites.

Below are some extracts from The Guardian from June 2002:
'Through an arch of trees on the bend of Stephen Gray's street is a look-out. Once, it offered a magnificent view of the tumbling fields of West Yorkshire, but the waist-high stinging nettles are evidence that nobody now pauses to look. That's not surprising because the view is of the two-mile-long site of Welbeck, one of Europe's biggest landfills. Its grey contours devour the Pennine landscape and obscure all but the very tip of Wakefield cathedral's spire.'

and
'The site has eaten away at more than just the horizon. Gray, a 47-year-old landscape gardener, says that some days the air is heavy with a stench like rotting cabbages and glue. In fine weather, so many flies get into his home he goes from room to room with a spray can in each hand. He is anxious about the litter from the site, which he says ends up on the surrounding countryside. Masses of seagulls feed on the dump and spread their own waste over the red-brick semis and bungalows of the estate.
Gray moved to the area three years ago and has since developed bronchitis. He had always been fit and active, he says, but now struggles to walk 100 yards and has a pounding head. His eldest son now has blotches on his skin, and his daughter's pregnancy is blighted by anxiety about the health hazards posed by the tip. Also, residents have to put up with the constant churning, banging and crashing of the diggers that work on spreading and layering some 560,000 tonnes of waste a year (Welbeck is authorised to take up to 1m tonnes), 60% of which is from household collections in and around Wakefield. "It's preying on us all the time," Gray says.'

The application number is 07/02400/FUL; the officer in charge of the case is Mike Pinder. His phone number is 01924 306586.

I urge you to find out what's going on; your local councillor holds regular surgeries - visit one & tell the councillor your vote depends on this application being thrown out.

Daily Mail & Violence

Normally I'm happy to announce myself as a regular Daily Mail reader.

However, Saturday 25th August's copy staggered me with its lack of thought: the first five pages were, quite correctly, covering the story of Rhys Davies' murder; its main magazine article about soccer 'hardman' Vinnie Jones is titled 'I may be a thug, but I'm a rich thug'.

Join the dots, children, and see that crime & violence do pay!