I was dismayed this week to learn that B&NES will scale back their involvement in the Public Inquiry process and effectively withdraw their support for those who have opposed the application to dump over 600,000 tonnes of asbestos in the former Stowey Quarry site.
More than 4,000 people signed a petition against this application and more than 650 objected via B&NES' own website. They did this because they did not want asbestos to enter our water courses and poison their families. The application remains inappropriate. There were significant grounds on which the application could have been refused but B&NES appears unwilling to have lent its full weight to this process and has let down the people of the Chew Valley in its interpretation of the evidence.
Bristol Water maintains its objection to the proposal and independent geological reports suggest that the location overlooking a primary school and Chew Valley reservoir is fundamentally unsuited to dumping anything, let alone potentially lethal asbestos waste. This is environmental vandalism of the worst kind. This matter has done a great deal to shake the faith of the local community in the ability of the council to act in its best interests – so much for Localism.
Jonathan Layzell Upper Road Hinton Blewett
