Pupils air their views on industrial estate plans
PUPILS are fighting plans for new warehouses near their primary school.
Stockport council is due to vote on whether to approve plans to expand Bredbury Park industrial estate by 60,000 square metres tomorrow.
The development would be built just over the border from Tameside, and would see the industrial estate expand into the Tame Valley, on green belt land.
But there are concerns Denton residents will face an increase in heavily-polluting traffic heading through the town if the scheme is approved – and at a time when improving air quality is high on Greater Manchester’s agenda.
Steve Marsland, headteacher at
Russell Scott Primary School, said: “You have got children in the middle of this who walk to school right next door to heavy traffic. This is going to cause untold damage.
“If you are going to be polluting the air that children breathe then you are storing up problems for the future.”
Russell Scott was one of 20 schools in Greater Manchester to have its pollution levels monitored in a University of Manchester project launched in October 2019.
The project found that there were five times more harmful particulates inside the classroom than outside.
These particulates come from diesel engines and brake dust, and can cause damage to a person’s lungs and heart.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, joined youngsters at Russell Scott as they made their own placards and called on councillors to reject the scheme.
He and neighbouring Conservative MP William Wragg issued a statement calling for the project to be turned down.
Tameside council has also objected to the plans, while Stockport council has received more than 800 comments from residents in total, with three-quarters being from residents outside Stockport.
Yet despite the calls for rejection, Stockport planning officers are recommending the scheme for approval this week, something that Steve says his pupils are ‘indignant’ about.