[ssf] Re: Sorry to interuput please read and act..

[Dan]

Cheers for drawing that to our attention Mozaz.  But you should really 
acknowledge who wrote the article -

For more information on fighting the proposals contact
Paul Antcliffe, Spokesman for Parkwood Landfill
Concerned Residents Group on 0114  2762353 or 
paul at paulantcliffe.wanadoo.co.uk
----

zerosevenfour two wrote:

> Local Residents Fight Parkwood Landfill Expansion
> Proposals
>
> Proposals are being put before the council this week
> for a massive enlargement of the Parkwood Landfill
> site, allowing a substantial increase in capacity from
> just 266,000 tonnes a year to a staggering 1 million
> tonnes. The Parkwood Landfill site is on the edge of
> Shirecliffe and overlooks many areas including
> Hillsborough, Upperthorpe and Walkley. Local residents
> are fighting these proposals and demanding a public
> consultation. However, their on going investigation
> into the proposals is raising more questions than
> answers. Residents are beginning to see a possible
> link emerging between the new massive incinerator in
> Sheffield, which is nearing completion, and the
> proposals for the enlargement of the Parkwood Landfill
> Site. If under these proposals the Parkwood landfill
> site was to have its suspended special waste licence
> reinstated, the expansion of the landfill site would
> enable the ash from the new Bernard Roads incinerator
> to be dumped there.
>
> In addition to the proposed expansion of the Parkwood
> Landfill Site, Viridor, the operators of the site,
> also want to build a gas utilisation and a leacheate
> treatment plant within the area. (Leacheate is created
> when water runs through a landfill site). Local
> residents and environmental campaigners are concerned
> that the gas utilisation plant will be a hazardous
> blot on the landscape until 2050 and that the leachate
> treatment plant will be producing hazardous waste in
> its treatment works until 2035.  Campaigners report
> that Viridor have approval from the Environment Agency
> for these proposals and that permission will also be
> sought to deposit the potentially toxic sludge in the
> ground. This potential dumping of toxic sludge will
> neither be confirmed nor denied by the Environment
> Agency. Instead, the Agency insist until the sludge is
> tested they will not know one way or another whether
> the material is hazardous.
>
> On Friday 6th May (at a time yet to be arranged) these
> proposals are going before the Sheffield Council
> planning board. Campaigners believe that the local
> council seems prepared to give Viridor's proposals the
> go ahead. The local protest group, Parkwood Landfill
> Concerned Residents Group (backed by nearly 2000
> signatures)want this planning decision to be delayed
> until they have had a properly informed public debate.
> The group met with the Environment Agency on Tuesday
> 3rd of May to discuss problems and concerns over
> Parkwood Landfill Site in advance of the planning
> board meeting.
>
> It seems that Sheffield people have been repeatedly
> mislead over the plans for the landfill site.
> Initially people were told no waste would be dumped
> near homes without a new planning application and
> public consultation. However it appears that local
> planning officers have processed these new proposals
> under an old 1986 planning permission. In addition,
> local people were promised this site would never be a
> hazardous waste site again.  This was after 7 tonnes
> of industrial batteries, stored in a plastic container
> and with some containing lithium, exploded releasing
> mercury into the air while people watched. In this
> context local residents and action groups were told
> the leachate facility was an environmentally friendly
> reed bed based one and the gas facility was for
> capturing the gas of bricks and building rubble - but
> bricks are inert waste and do not produce landfill
> gas! Many people have since bought houses in the area
> under the belief that the Parkwood site was shortly
> going to close, landscaped and made into a park and
> golf course.  This has not happened.
>
> One person has even photographed a large truck being
> buried in the Parkwood site. Viridor were challenged
> over this and reported that this was a legal activity.
>
>
> Local Residents are subject to constant unpleasant
> smells and noise that comes from the Parkwood Landfill
> site. Local people are worried that their health is
> suffering as a result of pollution coming from the
> landfill site.  The health survey undertaken of the
> area looked at just one in ten people.  The result
> didn't match the amount or forms of illnesses that
> residents are seeing among their families and the
> surrounding community.  The community want regular
> health monitoring for all the people in the area.
> Concerns about the health impacts and a high reported
> rate of cancer amongst people living in the area of
> the Landfill site is said to be the reason why a few
> years previously David Blunkett asked local MP Richard
> Caborn to look into local people's concerns about the
> site.
>
> For a bird's eye view of Parkwood Landfill site go to
> the top of Standish Way in Shirecliffe and you will be
> amazed.
>
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