Air Pollution Worries Residents
Members of the Breathe Clean Air Group were campaigning for clean air in Trafford at their street stall in Eden Square, Urmston, on Saturday. Many residents declared their anxiety over the recent proposals to introduce Fracking into Davyhulme alongside the proposed biomass waste incinerator.
“If gas is discovered in Davyhulme,” said Pete Kilvert, Chairman of the group, “the Government will insist that a full scale fracking venture will have to be established here whether we like it or not. And this is an area where air pollution is running rampant.”
The group has been campaigning for three years to stop the controversial Barton Renewable Energy Plant which will add dangerous air pollution to Trafford’s and Salford’s air. The additional pollution from Fracking on both sides of the Canal, along with the increasing motorway traffic pollution, will cause ill-health impacts to local residents.
“Children are particularly at risk” said Mr Kilvert, “as their lungs are still developing and their bodies don’t have fully developed immune systems to protect them. Anyone with a pre-existing health condition will be put at further risk and may die prematurely,” he added.
The Breathe Clean Air Group was visited by Trafford Mayor, Councillor Dillon Butt, who commented on Urmston’s community spirit wished the group well in their campaign.
Emissions from the biomass plant will increase exposure to industrial air pollution and must therefore
increase the rate of low birthweight babies:
http://news.sky.com/story/1154600/air-pollution-linked-to-low-birthweight
Planning application 81446/RENEWAL/2013 proposes to extend the 3 year time limit of the previous planning permission 74681/FULL/2010 which was approved by Trafford Council, WITH CONDITIONS, on 15th September 2010 (of which it seems 99.99% of residents were totally unaware at the time!).
Even the original conditions make clear that there are applicable risks, dangers and actions required for:
– pollution of watercourse or groundwater and disposal of foul and surface waters – to prevent pollution of the water environment.
– how the boreholes shall be drilled, operated and decommissioned in such a way as to prevent the transfer of fluids between different geological formations and to prevent uncontrolled discharge of groundwater to surface, to prevent pollution of the water environment.
– treating and removing suspended solids from surface water run-off during construction works , to ensure a safe form of development that poses no unacceptable risk of pollution.
– drainage from the development running off into the motorway drainage system or adversely affecting motorway drainage, in the interests of highway safety.
– development on or adjacent to any motorway embankment that shall put any such embankment or earthworks at risk, in the interests of highway safety.
– the position of the rig and its distance from the motorway, in the interests of highway safety.
– the erection of any temporary cranes that exceed 20m in height above ground level, in the interests of public safety.
– additional vehicular movements, loading, unloading and parking.
– the recommendations of the submitted Habitat Survey in relation to amphibians and nesting birds, in the interests of wildlife protection.
– implementation of the measures identified in the submitted Badger Mitigation Scheme (July 2010) and the protection of badgers during construction and during the operation of the facility, in the interests of wildlife protection.
– trees, shrubs and landscaping.
The additional information available now, more than 3 years after the original conditions were made, about the risks and dangers of coal bed high pressure drilling and methane extraction, would also include air pollution and disturbance of underground NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) as additional areas of concern.
This is an already over-polluted Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) – in the ‘red zone’.
What is needed are significant improvements to air quality and pollution – but this development would simply make matters worse.
Why? Massive subsidies in the wrong places and Trafford Council’s lower priorities for pollution and health 🙁
Here’s a link to those original conditions:
http://planning.trafford.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorerAA/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Application%20Conditions&TYPE=PL/ConditionsPK.xml&PARAM0=390213&PARAM1=No&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorerAA/SiteFiles/Skins/Default_AA/xslt/PL/PLConditions.xslt&DAURI=PLANNING&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorerAA/SiteFiles/Skins/Default_AA/Menus/PL.xml
(or search for the application reference here:
http://planning.trafford.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorerAA/Home.aspx)