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From The Socialist newspaper, 27 June 2018
Support growing against incinerator in Washington
photo Stephen Craven / SELCHP incinerator / power plant, Rotherhithe / CC BY-SA 2.0 (Click to enlarge)
Elaine Brunskill, Northern Socialist Party secretary
A recent House of Commons report, 'Improving Air Quality', points out that: "Air pollution cuts short an estimated 40,000 lives across the country each year.
"Children, the elderly, and those with existing medical conditions are at greatest risk."
Yet in Washington, Tyne and Wear, the energy company Rolton Kilbride wants to build a gasification plant, which local campaigners point out is a "posh term for incinerator".
If their plans get the go-ahead from Sunderland's Labour-controlled council, the plant will be within 1,200 metres of three primary schools.
The nearest homes are within 300 metres. There's also a risk to wildlife at the nearby Washington Wildfowl Park.
Campaigners from the surrounding villages of Sulgrave, Barmston and Concord are worried about the health risks posed if this project goes ahead.
Alongside health risks, the campaign has cited the increase in traffic on already congested roads, and the noise and odours from the plant. Already 9,000 have signed a petition opposing the plans.
One resident from Barmston said: "I can't understand how a Labour council can even consider allowing a company to build this type of plant only hundreds of metres from people's homes!"
Another, from Concord, angrily retorted: "If the council aren't backing us - it means they've declared war on the people of Washington".
The campaigners have set up a Facebook page "WAGG - Washington & Wearside Against Gasification (Incinerator) Group".
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
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In The Socialist 27 June 2018:
NHS SOS
30 June NHS demo: prepare for a mass movement
Gosport opioid deaths scandal: we need democratic control of our NHS
Socialist Party news and analysis
Walk out on 13 July against 'Kid Cager' Trump
Tottenham block evacuations a test for 'Corbynista council'
The bosses are 'dishonest' - not Militant and its supporters
International socialist news and analysis
The gathering new world disorder
Turkey's 'strongman' Erdogan tightens grip on state power
Socialist Party women
Workplace news and analysis
PCS union pay strike ballot - win the vote, win the claim
Unite union conference - drive out the Tories!
East Dunbartonshire council workers strike to stop pay and leave cuts
Unison union conference: delegates can't be cowed
NHS Mid Yorkshire strike suspended
NSSN conference, 7 July 2018: fighting back against the Tories and bosses
Homes and Communities Agency workers vote to strike over pay cuts and inequality
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Thousands snap up issue 1000 of the Socialist
Fighting for rights for Windrush generation and other migrants
Fight to save Devon hospital services
Support growing against incinerator in Washington
Hull unions organise 'Engage for Change' festival
Huddersfield set to lose two town centre post offices
Opinion
Prison: life inside a living hell
Blairite cuts and restructures make social work dangerous
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