A couple of weeks ago the UK received a visit from a poison cloud, full of invisible toxins and very visible saharan sand. Poison clouds move with the air currents and there is no such thing as a ‘safe area’ in our world. However we cannot always blame other countries for our problems.
Unfortunately, one of the most unpleasant polluters of air locally is one that could have been prevented by the 2007 Conservative led, Slough Borough Council, it drops it’s poison on Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor residents daily. Last summer temperatures soared and most of us enjoyed spending time out-doors; then on the morning on the 5th September, the Colnbrook incinerator released an enormous cloud of toxic particles into our atmosphere. A local air quality monitoring station recorded a massive 985 rating of course, particulate matter; the rating level that is considered safe is below 54!
The waste that is burned there daily, includes radioactive waste. Another type of incinerator pollution are dioxins, they are invisible, not measured, and are some of the most dangerous airborne poisons. All the air pollutants are densest in the 17 mile radius round the incinerator and locally that also includes reservoirs that we drink from.
Infant deaths, ischaemic heart disease, bronchial/lung and many cancers are caused by polluted air and found in high percentages in areas close to incinerators. Locally, we inhale the toxic waste sent to be burned by Ealing, Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond on Thames councils.
Surely we know enough about poisons, disease, carbon fuels and climate change by now to know that we must stop burning? Ban the burners and lets get real about our health and the air we breathe.
The future for Berkshire NHS services has never been at greater risk.
In March 2014Adam Afriye MP and Theresa May MP both voted with the Government to allow the Health Secretary to close hospitals even when they are performing well (section 119 of the Care Bill). A closure order can now be made in order to move funds from good hospitals to others that are struggling financially.
Between the 3rd and the 11th of April there was a very brief public consultation by the Competition and Markets Authority on the merger of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with Heatherwood and Wexham Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Only a week was given for us to say how the merger could affect the quality of care for NHS patients locally.
The door is now open for the ever increasing speed of privatisation of the NHS and the prioritisation of profit over quality of service. The NHS is the bedrock of our caring society and it is distressing to know that the futures of Heatherwood, Wexham Park and Saint Marks Hospitals could be decided with such little reference to the local community.
Our chances of living healthy lives are directly related to how well off we are and how far we live from health services. Less well-off people cannot afford long, expensive journeys or to take time off work to visit distant health services. There is no greater inequality than the difference between good health and poor health and shorter life spans. I urge people to speak up and defend Heatherwood hospital and other local NHS services at every opportunity. Let’s not lose our precious NHS to ‘death by a thousand cuts’.
Click through to Save Heatherwood Hospital Campaign.
In January I lost my car in the floods and the insurance payment hardly covered half of the cost of the replacement. In February, my partner’s house was flooded throughout the ground floor, the floorboards are still raised, it stinks and the dehumidifiers continue to thrum. Since then I have been disgusted by the lack of support from both David Cameron and local councils.
Cameron has refused to claim from the EU Solidarity Fund to improve UK flood defences, he prefers that the UK taxpayer picks up the tab even though the European money (at least £140 million) is ours for the taking. He is also responsible for the massive cuts to the Environment Agency flood prevention work (by a third) and he shows no sign of correcting his mistake, despite warnings of more extreme weather to come in the future.
The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead leadership have recently refused to contribute to the strengthening of flood defences along the Thames. The riverside residents near Maidenhead town were protected from flooding by the Jubilee channel but downstream, Datchet residents were badly flooded when the Jubilee released the water it could not cope with. The Jubilee was only ever intended to be one of a series of similar flood defences on the Thames and it is sickening that a council should now try to wriggle out of it’s responsibilities, leaving Datchet, Old Windsor, Runnymede and Staines to sink.
Local MPs, Mrs May and Mr Afriye have had little constructive to say on this matter; will they lobby David Cameron and the RBWM, to correct their failures and help their constituents? Unlikely, Mr Afriye is against the benefits of EU membership and Mrs May always tows the party line.
