Playing Politics

Granada TV's programme about Hafod Quarry was screened tonight. A sizeable chunk of the report was given to an interview with Martyn Jones outside the Houses of Parliament, where he said that Carwyn Jones had the power to issue a discontinuance order but... wait for it... there was a problem because Mersey Waste could then sue Wrexham County Borough Council and it would cost the council tax payers a lot of money blah blah blah. He went on to say that he "would like" Mersey Waste to, in effect, see the error of its ways and stop dumping at Hafod. Likely, eh?

Still time to write to Carwyn to urge him to stop the landfill:

Carwyn Jones
Minister for Environment, Planning & Countryside
National Assembly for Wales
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1NA

Carwyn.Jones@Wales.gsi.gov.uk.

Here's one letter sent by Janet Williams:

Dear Mr Jones,

I am writing with regard to the landfill site operated by Mersy Waste Holdings at Hafod Quarry in the county of Wrexham. I have had an interest in the site for some years now, and would urge you to issue a notice of discontinuation for the current use of the land.
The original application should have been no longer valid, since significant progress in waste management has occured since the time of determination by a planning inquiry. In addition there are now significant material considerations that have developed in the past ten years, including the designation of part of the site as SAC, changes in demography and transport, introduction of EIA and HIA and advances in understanding of the health impacts of landfill.
I attach evidence which was submitted to a hearing into the operations proposed at the site in July 2004, for your information and interest, and to assist your deliberations.
I would be willing to attend any meeting at the Assembly to give evidence should that be necessary.
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.


Please send Carwyn any additional information you have to assist him in his deliberations. I'm sure that many promises were made about how the site would operate, and that many of these have already been broken. So it would be worth writing to tell Carwyn how the site affects you, after just a few weeks. These accounts alone should make it abundantly clear that it was a serious mistake on the part of the Environment Agency and the council to allow landfill to go ahead at Hafod.