Council must get its act together over pollution
I WOULD like to add my support to the residents around Aylestone Park who are trying to get the city council to take action and resolve the issues regarding fumes from a dye works.
This factory is in a residential area and despite the council saying there is little it can do to resolve the issue, it has a statutory responsibility to investigate and powers to resolve it if it really wanted to.
There are strict planning conditions that the council needs to enforce.
The council’s own planning department set these conditions of use in 2015, with the document stating: “no… processes shall be undertaken which are detrimental to the amenity of the area by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, soot, ash, dust or grit.”
What’s the point of the council setting conditions if they are not enforced?
Why are the local councillors not insisting on action?
Are different departments in the council communicating or still working in silos?
The system of logging complaints with the council itself seems cumbersome, confusing and time-consuming, as I know from experience, having been on hold for over an hour trying to log a complaint.
Despite this, according to the council’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it has received many complaints, but most complainants were told to get back in touch when the odour “was occurring” and to register a complaint with the Environment Agency, as it “regulates the process”.
No one was told to contact the council’s own planning department to request enforcement action.
Local Green Party members have been going door-to-door in the affected area and, overwhelmingly, people we spoke to have said there is a problem.
They have told us of overpowering smells of burning plastic, of being unable to sit in the garden, to open windows or to hang washing out.
Many want filters to be fitted to the factory chimney.
I believe local councillors should be working with the factory and Environment Agency to resolve this issue, yet nothing has happened.
Nearly every resident asked has signed a petition calling on the council to take action.
Why has the council kept telling local people that the responsibility for this lies with the Environment Agency?
The ward councillors, the council planning and pollution departments, the factory and the EA need to work together with the community to resolve this issue.
It’s the moral and right thing to do.
Mags Lewis, Leicester Green Party