FAMILIES OUT IN FORCE IN QUARRY PROTEST
Families stage eight hour quarry protest
HUNDREDS of placard-waving campaigners have staged an eight-hour demonstration outside the gates of a controversial North Staffordshire quarry.
Some of the protesters dressed in outfits to highlight their campaign while a ‘Stop the Stink’ slogan was added to the Newcastle area’s newest sculpture on Gallowstree Lane.
Saturday’s protest - outside the Silverdale landfill site operated by Red Industries - started at 8am.
Newcastle MP Aaron Bell, pictured below, addressed the sociallydistanced crowd.
He said: “This has been a problem for years. But in the last six months, and particularly in the last three months, it has gone off the charts.
“What people are putting up with isn’t fair and it’s not right. There needs to be some compensation for the residents as well as the local schools, the hospital, and the university, which are also affected by this.”
Families lined the route to the quarry during the day long protest.
Helen Parton says she can smell Walleys Quarry from her Wolstanton home.
The 61-year-old said: “This has got to stop.
My elderly parents live about a mile away from here and, as if last year wasn’t bad enough, they can’t even go in their garden now and enjoy the one thing they can enjoy.”
One of the protest organisers, Nathan Wint, was arrested earlier this year after he chained himself to the gates of Walleys Quarry. Staffordshire Police later decided to take no further action.
The 31-year-old, from Silverdale, said: “This has been going on for far too long and we need to stop it.”
Sian Rooney, aged 41, from the Westlands, added: “We started to experience problems with the fumes earlier this year. They invade our home, even with the windows closed, and I have a threeyear-old son.
“Quite often, the fumes come at night and they wake you up. It feels like we are being gassed in our beds.” The Environment Agency, which regulates Walleys Quarry, has issued Red Industries with an enforcement notice relating to its operation of the site.
Ahead of the protest, a Red Industries spokesman said: “We respect the community’s right to take part in peaceful, lawful protest.”