5 December 2014
The following letter from Helen Andrews, Chair of Rochdale Green Party has beenreleased to the local media. It is crucial that after years of prevarication the Turner Brothers asbestos site is made safe and made available to the people of Rochdale.
Rochdale Green Party supports the establishment of a community group to further this aim.
The future of the Turner Brothers Asbestos site
The scandal of the asbestos ridden TBA site is still with us after ten years of people resisting the attempts to build housing on this highly contaminated area. It is now clear that the only solution is a political one. Not a party political one, but a solution that all the political parties, the MP and MEPs sign up for and promote.
The solution preferred by many, and seen as the only safe solution, is to safely cap the contaminated ground and turn the whole area into a country park linking Healey Dell and the centre of Rochdale.
As the chair of Rochdale Green Party I know that a number of people, including our members, have been campaigning over the years for this solution. In the past MEPs and political parties have been addressed by campaigners. Promises have been made by our MP to address the problem in Westminster. Four campaigners even went to the European Parliament in Brussels to press their case.
But where are we now with resolving the issues associated with this site? As the TBA Working Party has not met since March and appears to be dead in the water, a meeting has been called to set up a community group (along the lines suggested by council officers and councillors at the recent Rochdale Township meeting) to address the issues of the TBA site.
A progress report from the council would be welcome, but in the meantime I would ask all political parties in the forthcoming elections to clearly commit to turning this deadly site, which is still responsible for the deaths of Rochdale residents, into a country park for the common good.
The meeting is at Number 1 Riverside in room G11 at 6pm on Thursday 11th December. Please come and put your point of view and help us all to sort out this blight on the town of Rochdale.
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