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Wakefield Express 5th March 2008.
THE people of Altofts, Normanton, and Wakefield must be wondering what protection can be gained from a government organisation if, despite numerous breaches of permit conditions and planning regulations during 12 months which they themselves have drawn up and are supposed to enforce, can then turn round and say "they don't know if they will be taking legal action"!

I know of no other government or private body which, year after year, is allowed to break the license conditions without once ever been fined or losing its license or permit.
 
For the management of Welbeck to say that the illegal gas discharges are a 'misunderstanding' verges on the unbelievable, but then for the Environment Agency to start to make up excuses and defend the polluter, is extraordinary.
 
We then see on television that the same company which manages Welbeck toxic tip has had a license removed at a site near Hull due to fears of pollution. This shows that it is time the regulators are investigated.
 
What is good for the people of Hull is good for the children and grandchildren of our local population – or could it just be that employees of the Environment Agency live closer to the site in Hull than they do to Welbeck?
 
Julian Lyons
Address removed.
Altofts

"Recycling is Shameful".

THE good people of Wakefield are obviously doing a great job of recycling by squashing and flattening their cans and plastic bottles.     How do I know?
 
There are plenty of them, and of course paper and card covering the grass verges on Dewsbury Road. What a lovely sight they are! Wakefield precinct and the rest of the city centre is just as bad – there is rubbish everywhere. 
 
Who on earth came up with the inspired decisions to provide us with lightweight green boxes that are bullied by the slightest breeze, that refuse to allow binmen to pick up fallen or stray items, and, the best one of the lot, to take away the hard-working gangs of street cleaners that tried to keep our city tidy on a daily basis.
The people who lead our council should hang their heads in shame. 
 
What is the point of investing millions of pounds in development and regeneration, while at the same time attaching little or no importance to how clean and tidy our city should be, but sadly is not?
 
Philip Shaw
Address removed.
Flanshaw

"Knowledge Is Very Old". 

Wakefield Express 15th February 2008.
IN 2005 Paul Dainton was dragged out of a planning meeting and arrested for making a peaceful protest in Wakefield Town Hall over the refusal to enforce previously granted planning permission stating that a gas utilisation plant must be built at Welbeck.

Welbeck management, the Environment Agency and Wakefield Council planning had reneged on a promise that the plant would be built in 2003.
 
At that public meeting, Welbeck management assured everyone that the gas plant would be built and connected to the national grid by 2007. 
 
Dainton said this would not be the case and also produced a report from Welbeck management contractors, which stated the gas flare-off at the toxic tip was not meeting all BSI standards even at that time.      Dainton was correct.
 
How the Environment Agency and the council can now claim they were surprised that no gas plant was built by 2007 and that they did not know that the gas flaring and collection system was totally inadequate, is beyond belief. 
 
After hundreds of confirmed breaches of licence conditions during 10 years, with no legal action, it is time that the relationship between Welbeck management, the EA, and the council was investigated by the government.
 
Mr L Isherwood,
Address removed.
Normanton

"When Will We See Sense". 

Wakefield Express 8th February 2008.

AS a former resident of Altofts, I am not at all surprised that the toxic tip is now living up to the name that RATS gave it many years ago.

Waste Recycling Group and the Environment Agency knew exactly what they were taking on when they decided that an old, heavily contaminated artificial hillside was the ideal place to dump the largest pile of rubbish in Europe. 

The site was already leaking very high levels of toxic metals (mercury, lead and zinc) and the unknown structure of slag heaps meant that substantial work was needed before construction of the tip was started. 

This was not done and the slag heap beneath Welbeck is still contaminating the River Calder – and is now sealed forever beneath the largest tip in Europe. 

The Environment Agency seems unwilling or powerless to prevent the tip operators from breaking the laws and if I was more cynical, I would say that they actually just look for the easiest excuse that can be used to justify why the operator has been allowed to continue. 

Yes, the tip is now producing record levels of gas, and it is still leaking illegal levels of leachate into the surrounding environment, but both of these were easily predicted and methods of preventing them happening could have been planned for if the company had invested enough cash. 

Here's to the future the next set of problems are just as easy to predict because they have already happened in other tips of much smaller size (and better managed).

The tip will catch fire and will probably burn for months undetected. The fire will destroy the flimsy membranes that are meant to prevent the leachate from escaping, the company will say that they can no longer operate the tip economically and the ratepayers of Wakefield will have a huge bill to pay on top of the disastrous price that our environment is already paying. 

When are the citizens of Wakefield going to rise up and stop this monstrosity once and for all? 

Phil Waud,
Address removed.
Ossett


"Catastrophe is Brewing". 

Wakefield Express 1st February 2008.

  

HOW can Colin Fletcher defend the indefensible?

So, Mr Fletcher of Welbeck's management feels that their most recent commitment to global warming, as seen by the people of Wakefield, is purely a misunderstanding and that Welbeck's commitment to the local environment and human health seems to be unsurpassed. 
 
Well, let Mr Fletcher and his fellow managers make a visual record of their commitment by viewing the mass of photographic evidence and press stories from the Wakefield Express.
 
Mr Fletcher, do look at the RATS website at notoxictip.co.uk. these photographs are not only those taken by RATS, but many were taken by the press for their own independent stories. 
 
It is a great pity that the most recent photographs taken by the Environment Agency, showing the disgraceful acts of negligence on their so-called gas collection scheme, are still not available on the RATS website, the whole system is held together not by a wing and a prayer, but literally by adhesive tape – if this is not a catastrophe waiting to happen, I don't know what is!
 
The answer to prevent these constant breaches of site conditions is prosecution, as nothing else has ever worked.
 
It would appear that WRG's push for profits far exceeds any care or attention, not only for the public of Wakefield, but for everyone. 
 
One is left wondering why Wakefield Council has not prosecuted them for breaches of their waste disposal contract, planning permission and lease conditions. 
 
Brian S Kitchen,
Address removed.
Altofts
 

After an unprecedented number of letters sent to the Wakefield Express, they had to print 2 letter pages instead of their usual 1 page. The following 5 letters have been reproduced for you to read.


Health study is needed. 

Wakefield Express 25th January 2008.


THE latest letter by Colin Fletcher, of Welbeck Waste Management Ltd, said: "Government reviews have found that there is no convincing evidence to suggest that emissions from modern facilities harm health."

When gases from Nantygwyddon tip were analysed, 12 of the 117 were found to be carcinogenic.

The Environment Agency's 1998 report, 'Potential Human Health Effects of Landfill Sites', by Martine Vrijheid, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, states: "Improvement in landfilling techniques does not automatically resolve concern regarding the possibility of long-term damage to health from leachate and landfill gas."

The above report contains reviews of 54 health studies around landfill sites, only two of which were in the UK: Nantygwyddon and Walsall, and only these two were deemed to cause no harm to human health.

The 'study' cited for Walsall was not the 1992 epidemiological report prepared by Walsall Health Authority, which confirmed all the fears previously expressed by residents – whose earlier petition to the Queen led to that 1992 report.

Alan Dalton, the former board member of the Environment Agency, whose concern that health effects from landfill sites and incinerators were being ignored and thereby bringing the EA into disrepute, was sacked by Michael Meacher MP in December 2001.

The two landfill sites that concerned him most were Welbeck and Nantygwyddon.

I suggest that Mr Fletcher refrains from commenting on health effects from Welbeck until an accurate, independent study has been carried out comparing illness and mortality rates around Welbeck with a 'control' zone that is free from the type of emissions that the landfill site inflicts on residents. 

Michael Ryan, 

Address removed.

Shrewsbury.


Toxic tip is a global blight. 

Wakefield Express 25th January 2008.

LIVING in Normanton one can't drive towards Wakefield without viewing the enormous pile of rubbish piled so high that in winter the sun no longer shines over the river after midday.

Whoever thought of building a pile of waste that was more than 64 metres high on an island totally surrounded by river and canal and only two miles from the city centre, had to have either been mad or someone who didn't live in Wakefield.

Now, despite years of denial by the Environment Agency and Welbeck tip's management that there have ever been any problems such as stench, dust, flies, and litter, we find that the world's atmosphere is been polluted by poisonous gas emissions!

Not to prosecute those responsible for this mass pollution, which is affecting not just Normanton and Wakefield, but the world, seems inconceivable. Especially when the prime minister, ministers, and MP's are shouting that all world leaders must sign up to stop carbon gas emissions from destroying the world through global warming.

Mrs J Wilson,
Address removed.
Normanton.


How much more gas?  

Wakefield Express 25th January 2008.

FURTHER to readers' recent letters of concern regarding the Welbeck site, and the response given by Welbeck Waste Management Ltd, that there is no threat to human health from current operations at the site, I cannot help but wonder now if the health of those living within sniffing distance of the site has ever been compromised in the past by previous operations there.

My concern is past operations when the engineering at the site wasn't carried out to the high specifications that it is now or, indeed, whether human health will be affected in the future by the liquid/gaseous products that will quite probably be produced over many years by the cocktail of waste material rotting deep in the site?

As for landfill gas currently being burned off by the two special flare stacks perhaps, through the Express, "WWML" and/or the Environment Agency could advise readers what the residual exhaust from the flares comprise, the average daily volume and how easily it disperses into the atmosphere given the variable weather conditions.

Most people are aware of the  danger to health of carbon monoxide exhaust in poorly ventilated spaces, but should the public footpaths in close proximity to the flares be avoided on the days when the air is still, thus allowing a build-up of flare exhaust to seep at low level along the river corridor between Kirkthorpe and Stanley Ferry?

And could WWML also advise on what the residual by-products of the electricity generators will be, and how they will be disposed of, once the generators have finally been installed and are operational?

Government reviews may have found that there is no convincing evidence to suggest that emissions from modem facilities harm health - but equally so I, for one, am not convinced that all emissions from government are harmless to our health and wellbeing, despite all the spin to the contrary!

James Morris,
Address removed.
Normanton.


Denials are patronising.  

Wakefield Express 25th January 2008.

AS the person who raised the issue of birth defects, I felt I must respond to Colin Fletcher, of Welbeck Waste Management Ltd.

Mr Fletcher must be the only person who has not read of pods of congenital abnormalities around landfill sites, and I would imagine that gas emissions and their trace elements could easily be the cause of such birth defects. Also, the effects on people with breathing problems, particularly the elderly and children.

The denials by the waste industry on these issues is the same type of argument put forward by those people who used to operate the asbestos industry, thalidomide drug manufacturers and the tobacco industry, all of whom had great difficulty backing up their rebuttals when it came to legal action years after legal claims against them had been made.

I found the explanation of misunderstandings about the gas emissions and the public's views by Welbeck management, patronising, short-sighted and economical with the truth. And it is a safe bet that the owners of the site and their managers certainly do not live in  the vicinity of Welbeck.

It would be interesting if Mr Fletcher would be prepared to have a public debate with the officials of RATS, as I understand that they have consistently denied such requests in the past.

The Environment Agency must act now and prosecute immediately, and not be taken in by rhetoric and so called misunderstandings constantly uttered by WRG and its management.

Bob Ryan,
Address removed.
Eastmoor.


It's too big to handle.  

Wakefield Express 25th January 2008.

IN reply to Colin Fletcher's (Welbeck Waste Management Ltd) response on Welbeck, featured on your letters pages on January 11, we, as an association, feel we should respond.

It would seem that Welbeck's management has not taken a look back at its past history when they say they are a controlled and committed organisation to the environment.

Accepting meat waste since the opening of Welbeck Toxic Tip, WRG Plc has been guilty of depositing sewage filter cake, allowing waste to fall into the River Calder, stench and odour omissions, accepting goats and sheep's heads, not covering the tip correctly, inadequate site security, incorrect cover (use of car fragmentation), and fly infestation - all contrary to their site license.

Now, after 12 months of illegal gas emissions, despite numerous eminent medical reports on congenital birth defects around toxic tips stating there are pods or clusters of these defects, WRG Plc claim, in exactly the same way as the tobacco industry did with smoke-related cancer, "there is no conclusive evidence linked to health concerns".

Is it now time that Welbeck management admitted that the Welbeck tip is quite simply too big a project for them to handle without breaking the law every couple of weeks, and instead, left the waste industry to decent and honest people who have a reputable reputation for handling the public's waste?

May I also add that not if, but when, evidence comes to light that peoples' health is at risk, we do not hear the old adage that comes from every organisation, when things go so catastrophically 'wrong: "we will learn from our mistakes". I am sorry, but it will be too late then.

Martin Walker,
Address removed.
Altofts.



"Public have a right to know". 

Wakefield Express 4th January 2008.


FURTHER to the recent articles in the Wakefield Express about the landfill gas emissions at the Welbeck site, I'm sure I'm not alone in finding it difficult to appreciate just how much carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere.

The figures quoted in the Environment Agency report in terms of car miles are quite staggering, - far too many, I'm sure, for the average person to even begin to appreciate. I know I can't!

All I know is that with the development of the Welbeck site, Normanton Industrial Estate, Wakefield Europort, and what will be built along the Normanton by-pass extension to Glass Houston, the quality of air in this area will inevitably deteriorate further. 

So much for the present government policy that we should all be entitled to a "cleaner and greener" environment!

It appears to me that the Environment Agency prefers to play things down and keep things quite, but surely the public has a right to know the facts?

We have the waste management industry and its monitor (the Environment Agency) telling us we have nothing to fear from landfill, gases! 

I appreciate that waste has to be disposed of and Normanton's stuck with Welbeck - but I find the 'reassurances' given by the Environment Agency and Welbeck Waste Management Ltd, that I have nothing to fear health-wise, far from reassuring, especially when they come from officers who don't live near the site.

Barbara Jodrell

Address removed.

Normanton.

  

Prosecution already late. 

Wakefield Express 28th December 2007.

AFTER 12 months of open gas pollution from the toxic tip, Welbeck, the Environment Agency is reviewing the legal situation to see if breaches of the PPC warrant legal action? 

Had it not been for RATS I doubt if the Agency would have informed anyone of the "woefully inadequate" measures to control noxious gases and their trace elements that have obviously passed into not only the local  atmosphere,  but which have had (according to the EA Inspection report) an effect on global pollution. 

Over the past 10 years I recall press reports of litter falling into the river Calder, mud on the roads, stench, fly infestation, dust, and now  12,709 tonnes of carbon dioxide which could have been dealt with effectively but was instead poured into the atmosphere around Wakefield.

Yet not once in 10 years has the Environment Agency taken any kind of legal action. Why? 

If the people who make the decisions to prosecute (or not, as will be the case in this instance) lived in the Wakefield area I'm confident that things would be vastly, improved by use of legal action. 

If I were to empty the contents of my wheelie bin into the road, or my car emitted uncontrolled illegal burned gases into the air, if I smoke in a public building I would be prosecuted. 

So what is the difference between Joe Public and a multi-million pound national company - or have i just given the answer myself?

Mr B Brennan.

Address removed.

Altofts


Frightening news of tip.

AS a local resident who takes a significant interest in local affairs, I had seen no warning in the local press, TV or radio until I read the Wakefield Express last week that uncontrolled methane and carbon emissions are having significant global and local effects on our health and the environment. 

This fact has been backed up by four Environment Agency reports which have only just surfaced from the disaster that is referred to as the Welbeck household waste site. 

If an effective gas management could lead to an equivalent reduction of 868 million car miles or 12,700 tonnes of C02 gas emission, why hasn't a prosecution taken place already? 

If my car failed its MOT due to excessive gas emissions it would be immediately taken off the road and if I continued to drive it, I would lose my license and I would be prosecuted. 

So why has Welbeck been allowed to continue to flout the law for 12 months, causing local and global environment pollution? 

Especially when the solution is achievable and the cost would be offset by selling the offending gases for power in the community. 

The answer, it would seem, is in the relationship between Welbeck and the Environment Agency, and this relationship is obvious;y a disaster for the health of the local and global community.

Brian S Kitchen

Address removed.

Altofts.



"Why No Action On Gas?" 

Wakefield Express. on 21st December 2007.

 

AS a pensioner, I was extremely concerned to learn of the disgusting amount of poisonous gases seeping out of the Welbeck toxic tip into the atmosphere.

There has been no mention from either Wakefield Council, the environment agency or the NHS over the health effects of the so-called trace elements escaping into the air.
 
As a mother and grandmother, these agency safety reports are enough to frighten the local population to death – that's if the tip does not get you first.
 
How is it possible for a tip to pollute the environment for 12 months and for the environment agency to know full well the effect it is having on global warming, without our MP and local councillors not taking legal action on their constituents' behalf?
 
Do these people no longer care? no doubt, they will care if people are not there to vote for them next year.
 
Without immediate legal action, Welbeck will continue to flout its license and we and our grandchildren will be left with the consequences. and one thing is for certain, the profits made by these business people will not be coming back to repair the global damage this is now causing.
 
Lorna Angood.
Address removed.
Altofts.


"Time To Take Legal Action". 

Wakefield Express 21st December 2007.

 
LIVING so close to the toxic tip, one is constantly reminded of the deadly legacy we are leaving for our children and grandchildren.
 
This latest exposure by the Express about the horrendous carbon emissions already allowed to be pumped into our environment without any legal action is criminal!
 
We expect the Environment Agency and our elected MP's and councilors to ensure that we have protection from such deadly contaminants.
 
One constantly reads about pods of congenital abnormalities around landfill sites and would imagine that gas emissions and their trace elements could easily be the cause of such birth defects. One could also imagine the effects to people with breathing problems, particularly the elderly and children.

How can it be that we have to rely on environmental groups such as Rats to bring this to the public's attention when we are supposed to have such organisations as the Environment Agency and Wakefield Council's environmental health department?
 
It is time that we recognised that the Environment Agency is there to pamper to the will of the waste industry and who will do or say anything as an excuse not to prosecute these global polluters on our behalf.

It is time that MP's and Wakefield Council recognised the contribution made by Rats to protecting our environment, for one thing is certain, without its environmental work and exposure of such polluting schemes, such as Welbeck, by the time we would be aware of these horrendous crimes it would be too late to take remedial action. 

The Environment Agency must act now and prosecute immediately. 

Bob Ryan.
Address removed.
Eastmoor.


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