A Cold Christmas for Fuel Poor Britons

 

This has been a Christmas season like no other, one where most of us have been obliged to spend much of our time at home. A not altogether cheerless prospect if your home is warm and well lit.

 

Unfortunately for many people living in the UK that is a long way from being the case. Based on 2018 figures 10.3% of UK households are fuel poor, paying for light and heating is something they must balance off against eating or paying the rent.

 

My hometown of Stoke-on-Trent is one of the cities where this problem is most prevalent, according to figures published in the Sentinel in 2017 the city has the ninth highest rate of fuel poverty in the country.

 

The same figures showed that 15.4% of households were paying above average for their gas and electric, leaving them below the poverty line.

 

The pandemic, as in so many other cases, has changed things dramatically; and not for the better. Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action estimate that 12,000 people die every year from health conditions made worse by living in cold homes.

 

Chief executive Adam Scorer told The Big Issue this November that this has, thanks to COVID-19, been a 'far from normal winter ' when things are quite bad enough.

 

The pandemic has, he said, 'hit household incomes and confined people in cold, unhealthy homes, people are spending more time in homes they cannot afford to heat, using more energy and paying more for it while earning less'.

 

A perfect storm of health and social problems brewing up and waiting to burst with all the awful consequences that are sure to follow.

 

What is to be done about such a serious problem? There is a question that brings the politician and policy maker in their long costs running over the frosty fields.

 

The solution, or part of it anyway, is already there in the legislative programme for the new parliamentary year in the shape of The Local Electricity Bill, which is due to have its second reading on 5th February.

 

Introduced as a Private Members Bill by Conservative MP for Waveney Peter Aldous the proposed legislation would, among other things, establish a right to local supply. This would make it easier and, more importantly, cheaper for small community run electricity companies to generate and sell electricity in their local area.

 

This would break the stranglehold on the market exerted by the big four energy companies, in the process using a little of the competition capitalists preach about endlessly to lever some fairness back into the system.   It would also help to kick start the generation of renewable energy, ensuring as it did so that through community ownership customers are also partners in the business.

 

Private Members Bills have made history in the past, although the process is more often even when successful tends to be a sort of parliamentary parlour game. This one matters more than most, even if on the face of it how we generate and buy our energy is neither a sexy nor emotive subject.

 

Poverty is not dissimilar to the virus that has haunted us for the past year, it kills with quiet efficiency and can, if their personal planets align in the wrong way, strike down pretty much anyone. Just as it will take more than one vaccine to beat coronavirus, putting poverty back in its box will also require a range of actions.

 

One that needs to be taken early this year is for parliamentarians from all sides to ensure this unglamorous, but vital, bill gets passed.

 

More information about the Local Electricity Bill can be found at: Local-Electricity-Bill-Briefing.pdf (powerforpeople.org.uk)

Green Party Activist Refutes Claim Plan to Rescue Cannock Chase Will Have a Negative Impact on Disabled Visitors.

 

Steve Jones, a member of the Green Party Disability Group, has today refuted claims made on social media that a plan to protect Cannock Chase Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from further damage will impact on disabled users.

 

Mr Jones said: ‘I have yet to read or hear from a disabled person giving their opinion. In fact, I see lie after lie and disabled people are being used to propagate these falsehoods; be it path closures, carpark losses and restricted access for the disabled’

 

The comments made on Facebook relate to proposals by the SAC to remove 51 out of 123 parking locations at various points around the Chase, 33 of which are pull-in bays for 4 cars or less and so unsuitable for disabled parking.

 

Speaking about the comments Mr. Jones said: ‘Disabled people have a voice and an opinion, and we do not need social media hooligans speaking for us! he added, the SAC is improving access for disabled people as well as making the Chase disabled friendly’.

 

 

The SAC also plans to create 100 parking spaces at the Marquis Drive visitor centre, these will operate under the council’s blue badge scheme. The visitor centre is a focal point for disabled visitors to the Chase and off-road electric scooters are available for hire, making most trails starting from that point accessible.

 

At 26 square miles Cannock Chase if the smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England, it attracts 2.5million visitors a year, this is expected to rise to 3million by 2026.

 

The £7.5 million SAC plan to improve paths, parking and signage on the Chase will be paid for through a levy on local housing developments.

 

In 2019 the a spokesperson for the SAC said in reference to the impact of rising visitor numbers ‘let it be under no doubt that Cannock Chase is dying’, the aim of the plan is to safeguard the long-term future of the site.

 

Jade Taylor, Coordinator of North Staffs Green Party who are supporting the SAC and local campaign group For the Love of Cannock Chase said, ‘it is so sad that people who are campaigning to protect a vital natural habitat are facing insults on social media’

 

She added that although local Greens would like to see the SAC plans go further ‘we recognize the efforts they are making to protect Cannock Chase for future generations and fully support them’.

 

A council vote due to be held on the SAC plan this week has been postponed until the new year.

 

Nature is Key to Our Physical and Mental Health - That's Why We Need to Fight to Protect Our Green Spaces.

 

Earlier this month analysis carried out by the Met Office about the consequences global warming was reported by the BBC's Panorama programme. The way they explained this unsettling conclusion caught the national imagination.

 

If climate change continues at the current rate white Christmases will only be found on greeting cards. By the 2040's most of Southern England will no longer see the thermometer fall below zero in the Winter; by the 2060's snow will only be found on then most remote parts of Scotland.

 

Dr Lizzie Kendon, a senior scientist at the Met Office told the BBC 'We're saying by the end of the century much of the lying snow will have disappeared entirely except over the highest ground'.

 

The news coverage focussed on the idea of a Christmas without snowmen, sleigh rides or snowball fights, or as Dr Kendon warned striking a more serious note, a ' shift towards more extreme ' weather events.

 

The Met office based its unsettling predictions on the world warming up by just 4 degrees. This was only the latest warning about the poor health of the Natural world.

 

In 2018 the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England warned that the amount of green space lost to development has risen by 58%. That includes the paving over of farmland, forests, and other green spaces.

 

The Green Space Index produced by Fields in Trust in 2019, 2.5million Britons live more than ten minutes-walk away from a park or other green space.

 

The link between having access to green spaces and better mental and physical wellbeing is well known. Fields in Trust estimate this to be worth £3.2billion every hear, as Alison McCann, policy and insight manager for the charity told the BBC people with access to green spaces nearby are 'reaping some huge rewards'.

 

The State of Nature report (2019) based on the details of scientific monitoring conducted from the seventies onwards shows a fall of 41% in the UK's animal population. Worryingly 15% of wildlife species found in the UK are threatened with extinction.

 

There have been some hopeful signs in recent years including the reintroduction of red kites, bitterns, and other species however the losses outweigh the gains.

 

Leading figures in the conservation world expressed their concerns at the launch of the report to the Ecologist magazine.

 

Tony Juniper chair of Natural England said, 'more needs to be so e to reverse nature's decline, so that our children can benefit from a richer natural environment '.

 

Rosie Halls of the National Trust said the report showed that the natural world was 'at a crossroads ' and that we all need to 'pull together with actions not words to stop the decline'.

 

Daniel Hayhow, the lead author of the report said that its findings should make people 'sit up and listen', he added the  an urgent and determined response is needed if 'we are to put nature back where it belongs'.

 

The crisis affecting the future of the natural world can be seen in a hand sized version by anyone who visits Cannock Chase in Staffordshire where fears for the future of one of the county's iconic landscapes.

 

The plan put forward to protect and revive the Chase by campaign group For The Love of Cannock Chase is a determined response to environmental crisis of the sort recommended by Daniel Hayhow and others. It is sad that it has met with a negative response from some members of the local community.

 

As Sophie Pavelle, a young conservationist who helped to launch the State of Nature report told The Ecologist, 'people protect what they love', sometimes that means doing what is right for the long term; not trying to please a few people right now.

 

Cannock Chase is a unique and valuable green space loved by the people of Staffordshire for centuries. As MS Pavelle might have put it, now is the time for everyone who truly cares about its future to  come together, work together; to 'dig deep and find real hope for a better and sustained future' for the natural world.

Eat Like There Is A Tomorrow.

 

'We all need to look at ourselves and what we are eating and doing and ask am I doing the right thing for the planet?'

 

These words were spoken by Vicky, an activist for Stoke-on-Trent Animal Rights (STAR) when she gave an online talk to members of North Staffs Green Party recently.

 

She made a powerful point, there are few subjects more controversial than what we eat and how it should be produced.

 

The figures are stark something close.to 70 billion animals are killed for human consumption worldwide every year, the majority of these raised in the bleak conditions of the factory farming system.

 

For members of STAR, most of whom have chosen to adopt a vegan lifestyle this is both morally wrong and environmentally unsustainable.

 

They also resonate powerfully with a wider green movement that recognises climate change as the greatest threat to human survival decades ago. Industrial agriculture, particularly in relation to meat production, plays a major part in this.

 

We have all, Vicky went on to say, benefited this year from clearer skies and a more visible presence of nature in our lives this year during the two lockdowns.

 

Most people have also seen the important and previously ignored role compassion and empathy between humans during 'this awful year '.

 

The time has come she said, for the same compassion and empathy to be extended to animals and the environment. Not least because many pandemics are caused to a greater or lesser extent by our lack of care for nature.

 

The facts are her colleague Emily said, 'shocking and depressing' but, she added, we can ' all change things round and make a difference '

 

This, STAR advocate can be done by moving away from the current unsustainable system of food production towards a plant-based diet. Those who do so, she said, are choosing 'compassion and not to be part of a way of living that harms the planet'.

 

Taking part in the annual post-Christmas Veganuary campaign is Emily said, a good way for someone to start their 'vegan journey'.

 

STAR actively support local people embarking on this journey and both Vicky and Emily advised that is one people should take at their own pace without feeling they have to do too much too soon.

 

Ultimately it is for most people, as Vicky said, ' a big change; but a worthwhile one'.

 

The talk certainly exploded many of the inaccurate representations of vegans portrayed in the mass media. Far from being an austere and judgemental position, it is one rooted in compassion and positivity.

 

Veganism may not be for everyone, but its core message of thinking harder about what we consume and making more ethical choices will certainly ring true for anyone who is concerned about the future of our planet.

Cannock Chase is Too Valuable to be Allowed to Die.

 

'Let it be under no doubt Cannock Chase is dying, the biodiversity is decreasing, habitat is fragmenting, vegetation is in a poor state. The Chase is in a downward spiral and the habitat and wildlife you see today will not be here in thirty or forty years-time'.

 

This is the bleak assessment of the current state of the iconic Staffordshire beauty spot given by team managing the site as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in 2019.

 

North Staffs Green Party have given their support to For the Love of Cannock Chase, a campaign group working to protect the Chase.

 

The Chase was designated as a SAC in 2005, the highest possible designation for a wildlife habitat in England. This brings together the local authority, landowners, wildlife conservation groups and other organisations to develop the infrastructure of the site and provide free environmental education.

 

Housing development in the Cannock area, predicted to increase by 15% to 20% by 2026 is putting increasing pressure on infrastructure such as footpaths and the wildlife to which the Chase is home.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said 'The Chase is a unique and valuable landscape and one we must do all we can to protect. That is why we are giving our full support to this campaign '.

 

In an article published earlier this year For the Love of Cannock Chase set out some of the problems faced by the site. These include erosion of footpaths by increasing numbers of visitors, along with littering and damage caused by illegal BBQs.

 

The Chase has, they write, been 'undervalued and underfunded for years', although it has had some grants in the past, including to reinstate heavy footed grazers, 'it is still not enough ' to meet the challenges of the years to come.

 

Among the changes the group are calling for are the introduction of a paid parking g scheme they say is 'absolutely necessary ' to manage visitor numbers, along with the closure of part of Chase Road.

 

The article concludes with the authors saying there is ' a long road ahead' to protect the Chase and ' all the small pockets of wild space we have left in the UK, but with public support and understanding we can make thing better '.

 

The Green Party spokesperson said 'we will be working with For The Love of Cannock Chase in the new year to  protect the site as valuable wildlife corridor, whilst allowing the public to enjoy it responsibly as they have for decades'.

 

 

When is A Lockdown Not A Lockdown?

 

Next week England comes out of its second lockdown of the year, well sort of, since most of the country, some 55million people, will instantly go into the highest two tiers of a new set of regional restrictions, only Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly will go into  Tier One, which represents something almost like normality.

 

My hometown of Stoke-on-Trent will be joining most of the North and the Midlands in Tier Three. Since there isn't much else to do all 23million of us will have plenty of time to consider how our situation resembles that of the physicist's cat. We will be both in lockdown and not in lockdown at one and the same time; enjoy.

 

In a statement to the House of Commons when the new tiers were unveiled on Thursday Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that ' thanks to the shared sacrifice of everyone in recent weeks'  we have been ' able to bring the virus back under control'.

 

He added that hope, in the shape of a vaccine, 'is on the horizon but we still have further to go' and 'must all dig deep'.

 

That Stoke-on-Trent has ended up in the highest tier is no surprise, despite falling consistently over the past week the infection rate is still high at 419.3 per 100,000, putting us in seventh place in the league table of virus hotspots.

 

Council leader Abi Brown wrote to Matt Hancock asking for the city to be placed in Tier Two on the strength of our having brought the number of infections down twice before. The answer, unsurprisingly, was no dice, having got their fingers burnt in their tussles with Andy Burnham last month national government isn't much minded to listen to the case made by uppity local leaders.

 

This, as NHS health chief for the city Dr Paul Edmondson Jones told the Sentinel left the city with little else to do other than 'pick ourselves up and sort things out'.

 

Anyway, the government are going to be more than a little distracted by fighting a pitched battle with their own back benchers, many of whom are up in arms at their constituencies being put in the top two tiers.

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hardly poured oil on troubled waters by blandly asserting that 'every area has the means of escape ' from the highest tiers. Not least since the criteria for getting out are far from clear.

 

You don't need to be a salty seadog to smell a storm brewing that is most likely to blow up into a hurricane. Within minutes of the announcement Graham Brady, a leading light in the Covid Recovery Group, aka the awkward squad, was telling the BBC thought the policies adopted by the government since the pandemic began 'have been too authoritarian '.

 

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, also speaking to the BBC called on the government to  publish details of the likely impact of the new restrictions on ' society, people's livelihoods and businesses ' before MPs vote  on the issue next week.

 

The government are expected to win the vote, which takes place on Tuesday, but may need the support of the opposition to do so. Labour are likely to oblige, but at an as yet undisclosed price.

 

What we have seen unfold over the past week is a rehash of the cocktail of muddle and miscommunication that has been the signature of the Johnson government since the start of the pandemic in March.

 

If the current restrictions had been implemented earlier, we might be in a better position now. We could be in a worse one yet if the planned relaxation over Christmas goes as badly as everyone apart from Boris Johnson thinks it will.

 

Add to this the fact that the Tory back benches are filled with MPs, many from seats in the North that belonged to Labour until December last year and there is the Making a of a pretty mess brewing. One that could make the upheavals over Brexit look like a vicarage tea party.

 

It is right that when the executive interferes so drastically in people's lives as it has over the past year that parliament should defend the liberties on which our democracy is founded. Unfortunately, the government is not minded to pay attention, citing instead the demands of safety as an excuse for their actions.

 

Matters aren't helped by the absence of an effective opposition, for all his obvious intellect Labour leader Keir Starmer presents a dry and lawyerly figure. What little fire here is in his belly seems to be reserved for the endless purge of anyone suspected of supporting his predecessor.

 

Without a credible figure to lead it or an argument as to what we should be doing differently that holds water opposition to the current restrictions sounds like little more than sour grapes and self-interest. An increasingly frustrated public is left stranded on the side-lines of their own lives wondering what, if anything, will be left of their hopes and businesses.

 

The promise, such as it is, is that we just have to get through the winter and thanks to the vaccines set to come on stream things will start to get better. As Mr Johnson put it, they may not be on the horizon yet, but the cavalry is on its way.

 

Writing this article in a city where pretty much everything is closed and may stay that way until Spring it is hard to hear their hoof beats over the din of politicians squabbling.

Capitalism of the Living Dead.

 

Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy

Kerry-Anne Mendoza

(New Internationalist, 2016)

 

There are some books that are considered to.be important enough to reside in the intellectual canon of their time. From the outside this looks as sedate and any such institution. Inside though it is as rowdy as a saloon in a Wild West boom town as the scholars residing within squabble over who should be allowed in, and who should be thrown out.

 

There is a smaller as quieter anexe off to the side, this is where the books that are genuinely necessary live. The entrance is as narrow as the one that keeps the rich out of paradise.

 

First published in 2015 and then revised to include extra material by Dinyar Godrej and David Ransom Kerry-Anne Mendoza's first book would slip through as If it has been greased.

 

Beginning with the Bretton Woods agreement signed at the end of the Second World War to the  austerity policies foisted on countries by the EU and the IMF following the 2008 crash Mendoza shows how capitalism has sold we the people a pup. This has been intertwined with a plot to systematically dismantle worker’s rights and those that underpin the democratic system itself to create a corporate state. This is to the benefit of the 1% and hugely to the detriment of everyone else.

 

These are challenging ideas and ones much of the media and the commenting classes would like to dismiss as just another rant emerging from the ragged tent of the Occupy movement. This is true in the sense that Mendoza was one of its leading lights before going on to set up alternative media outlet The Canary.

 

The text itself though is diametrically opposed to the sort of spiel earnest types deliver to small audiences in rooms above pubs. It is a forensic half-dozen of the myths propping up an economic and political system that recent events have shown to be dangerously flawed.

 

There are some grumpy academics who will say that few of the ideas she expounds are original. Fair cop, so far as it goes, which isn't all that far. What Mendoza does brilliantly is lay them out in clear, jargon free, language for the audience who need to.be exposed to them most; we the voting public.

 

This matters even more since the advent of the pandemic led to governments around the world throwing the fiscal rule book out of the window. An optimist might see in this the possibility of a new age of egalitarianism and social democracy.

 

Unfortunately, this is no time for optimists, there is a better than average possibility that the death by a thousand cuts Mendoza describes being inflicted on our economy and political culture will be accelerated. An unprecedented crisis may yet prove to be an excellent opportunity for the wealthy few to balance the books.

 

Capitalism and cynicism have always walked in lockstep. Read this book to be informed about what has gone before and forwarded about what may be to come. Read it to as a call to arms for the 99% to get angry, take to the streets and turn things around.

 

Rise in Food Parcels Provided During the First Six Months of the Pandemic is Only the Tip of the Iceberg Warns Charity.

 

The Trussell Trust, the charity running most of England’s food banks saw a 47% rise in need for its services during the first six months of the pandemic.

 

Figures published by the charity show that it provided 1.2million emergency food parcels between the start of April and the end of September, 470,000 of which were for children.

 

An emergency food parcel consists of enough food to last one person for three days, during the pandemic the Trussell Trust have also been providing seven-day parcels. The figures are based on the total number of both types provided.

 

The trust warn that the figures represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to food poverty and do not account for people helped by the many local groups that have sprung up since the start of the pandemic.

 

Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said ‘throughout 2020 communities across the country have stepped in to provide vital support for people left without money’, she praise the work of food bank volunteers, but added that it is ‘not right that any of us are forced to turn to a charity for food’.

 

MS Revie also praised the ‘incredible compassion and concern for people facing hunger’ shown by the public ‘following Marcus Rashford’s brilliant campaigning’ on the issue.

 

She also welcomed steps taken by the government to prevent people from falling into destitution, but said such support must ‘work in coordination with a national welfare system that is strong enough to act as a lifeline to anyone struggling to afford the essentials’.

 

The Trussell Trust are calling on the government to do more to help struggling people by locking in the £20 rise to Universal Credit and to suspend benefit debt reductions until a fairer payment system can be developed.

 

The charity are also asking members of the public to support their Hunger Free Future campaign by signing up at  https://www.trusselltrust.org/hunger-free-future/.

 

The pandemic, Emma Revie said, had ‘shown how the unexpected can hit us suddenly’ and have a devastating impact on the lives of individuals and families.

 

It has also shown, she went on to say, how ‘we can make huge changes to how we live and look after each other’, adding that ‘when we come together to push for change, the government responds’.

 

 

Help for Families Struggling to Put Food on the Table Due to the Pandemic.

 

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and supermarket chain The Co-Op have announced initiatives

aimed at supporting individuals as families struggling to afford food did to the pandemic.

 

The Trussell Trust, the charity running most of the UK's food banks estimates that it will give out an extra six emergency food parcels every minute this winter.

 

Research carried out by the charity in partnership with Heriot Watt University earlier this year estimates that it will give out 846,000 food parcels between October and December, a 61% increase on last year.

 

It also identified that half the people who turned to the Trussell Trust for support during the first wave of the pandemic has never done so before.

 

Families have been hardest hit by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with a YouGov poll conducted for the Food Foundation finding that two in five respondents had needed support from a food bank.

 

As economy struggles to cope with the on-going crisis the Office for Budgetary Responsibility predicts that a 13.2% rise in unemployment could see between 251,892 and 336,533 people becoming food insecure. The Trussell Trust estimate that an extra 670,000 people could be struggling to pay for food and other essentials by the end of the year.

 

This makes the initiatives announced by the council and the Co-Op even more vital.

 

Using funding provided by the department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the city council are making £19,200 available to local organizations that provide food and essential supplies to people who are in need.

 

The Co-Op are offering grants of up to £1000 to community organizations working to tackle food poverty.

 

Funding from the city council can be used by eligible organizations to purchase food and other essential supplies, to cover storage and any extra costs associated with supporting households affected by Covid -19.

 

Organisations applying for grants from the Co-Op need to meet their funding priorities, which include providing access to affordable food for families on a limited budget and reducing food waste.

 

The deadline for applications for funding from the council is 27th November, application forms can be requested by emailing communities@stoke.gov.UK or calling 01782-233265

 

Applications to the Co-Op should be made through The Community Foundation on https://staffsfoundation.org.uk/grants/ or by calling 01785-339540

 

 

 

An Inclusive Mental Health Service Creates a Safe Space for Everyone.

 

The Centre for Mental Health has published the third briefing from its on-going commission for equality in mental health chaired by former Disability UK chief executive Liz Sayce.

 

Previous Georgia have focussed on the determinants of mental health and access to support services.

 

This has seen them highlight issues such as high levels of PTSD in the African -Caribbean community and children from the poorest 20% of UK households being four times more likely to have a serious mental health problem by the age of eleven.

 

Previous briefings have also suggested improvements to how mental health services are delivered. These include building stronger links with community groups and a greater role for peer sport groups.

 

The remit for the third briefing states that 'an inclusive mental health service creates a safe space for everyone, in which past discrimination can be redressed and support is offered'.

 

Building on the work done for other publications the briefing identifies large inequalities in services offered to people with mental health issues.

 

These relate to interconnected issues of age, gender, income, and specific ethnicity such as membership of the Roma and Traveller communities.

 

As a result, people with the most serious conditions are at risk of being offered services that are 'the least effective, the least relevant and, for some, the most coercive'.

 

The briefing recognises some of the steps that have been taken by the NHS to improve mental health services. These include implementing the Advancing Mental Health Inequalities initiative and the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework, both of which were recommended by the independent Mental Health Act review.

 

The briefing says that if 'fully implemented and adequately resourced, these two initiatives will improve people's experience of mental health care nationwide '.

 

The briefing makes recommendations for how mental health service providers can address issues of inequality, these include, valuing lived experience through co-production and adopting more culturally aware models of service delivery.

 

The commission will publish its full report on 12th November.

Community Relations Wearing Thin as Problems Continue Over Smell From Landfill.

North Staffs Green Party have been working with residents and campaign groups opposed to odour emissions from a landfill site.

 

There have been problems relating to emissions of hydrogen-sulphide and Methane gas from the Wally’s Quarry landfill site in Silverdale, which is operated by Red Industries.

 

The party worked with Dr Michael Salt, a chartered nuclear physicist living in the area, to conduct a public research poll over the past week, gathering data from 270 residents.

 

This North Staffs Green Party Coordinator Jade Taylor said had provided ‘a very clear picture of which areas are impacted and the levels of intensity’.

 

The survey showed the worst impact of unpleasant odours from the quarry was felt in Silverdale with 91.3% of respondents saying they were disgusted by the smell. Residents in Pool Dam (73.5%), the Westlands (66.7%) and Keele (55.3%) also complained about bad smells from the site.

 

The survey also revealed the emotional impact of living next to the quarry on residents, including a widow who had been unable to visit her husband’s grave in nearby Silverdale Cemetery due to the smell.

 

MS Taylor said this was ‘only one story of how the awful odour is proving to be detrimental on the surrounding communities’.

 

She added that with the possibility of a second lockdown there ‘pressing concerns’ about the impact the smell will have on the ‘physical and mental health’ of residents.

 

In a letter to Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Aaron Bell thanking him for raising the issue in parliament MS Taylor writes that the attitude of Red Industries towards concerns expressed by residents and their MP has been ‘aggressive and deflective’.

 

The party will be continuing to work with local communities to gather evidence and have reached out to Jo Maugham QC of the Good Law Project. It is understood that Mr Maugham has requested an introduction to assess the possibility of taking legal action.

 

MS Taylor said that despite the harmful impact on residents and the environment repeated breaches of regulations by Red Industries had ‘attracted no visible consequences, and therefore community relations are wearing thin’.