King's Lynn's answer to the Sahara Desert!
No problem providing a children's sand pit for the day!
A sand dune and a large sulphuric acid tank at WBB/Sibelco, 11/10/08
Some Really Big Diggers!
A LOCAL VIEW
"I felt it should really have been called a family fun day. I am angry that WBB feel they can call this an open day when it would have been impossible to sit down quietly somewhere to ask serious questions on behalf of people whose lives will be changed forever to their detriment by these proposals when you are surrounded by balloons, twirling fairground cups, bouncy castles, screaming kids and face painters.
This was just a jolly for employee's kids and local families whose boys love to go for rides in Jeeps, it wasn't a balanced meeting with their public. This isn't about boy's toys but about people's future lives and when I saw the size of those diggers my heart sank at the prospect of looking at those daily from my front door.
Just who do they think they are that can trivialise something so important in this way. If they were to hold a second exhibition and presentation for people who need answers i may have taken some notice but this was an absolute farce. there was nothing stopping them putting one of their employees in the quiet/video room to address serious issues, but no - where was the jelly and ice cream?
Did you get him on his own in a quiet undisturbed room to answer your questions properly or do they think we will be so impressed by their display and rides that we will all change our minds?"
REPLY by EWAG Chairman & Webmaster Neil Paddock:
Actually, No.
It was, as ever, an excellent demonstration of Public Relations.
The cynical among you might even consider the word "spin".
There were balloons tied up at the entrance in bunches at the gate entrance, and a friendly leaflet about the company and the site handed out as you drove in. Nice shiny new Sibelco signs have been installed, replacing the earlier old and shabby WBB Minerals ones.
A sand pit was provided for the kids (no shortage of sand obviously), a large marquee set up with conservation and archaeology experts available showing specimens of local wildlife (a young grasssnake and some historic pottery and coin finds from the King's Lynn site)
(see http://saveeastwinch.blogspot.com/2008/10/wbb-open-daywas-it-all-hot-air.html for further details)
We did make contact with a number of WBB Minerals (now called Sibelco) officials, including Resources Director Gary Stringer and Andy Price (The IT manager who had said in the paper that silica sand is safe when it's still in the ground, which I thought was a great argument for not digging it up in the first place!)
Mr Stringer offered us what he thought we would accept as some good news -they were not considering landfill for MIN40, As "We are not that type of company."
[From what we are led to believe about the toxicity of Bawsey Lake, would a lake be any better than a landfill, I wonder? 50% of our voters on http://www.saveeastwinch.blogspot.com/ seem to think it would be good, despite the risk of property subsidence due to a lowering water table and potential flood risks once the lakes (at Grandcourt Quarry in Middleton, formerly Grandcourt Farm) are completed.]
We were offered a 20 minute tour of the site, and a follow up meeting to answer questions.
Mr Stringer felt he would not be able to answer all the questions EWAG raised in the letter to Tom Cutbush (Sibelco's Chief Executive) as he informed us each site is different.
He did say that it would be a number of years (3 or more?) before anything would happen on the site due to how the planning application process works. They have to do environmental surveys first and so on in order for planning permission to be granted. Grandcourt Quarry took a number of years he said (about 5 years I think, from original intent to permission being given - see WBB's website for more details)
[It would have been a lot longer if I had known about it at the time!
Two small notices were put up for a two week period on each side of the village, the very week my family and I came to view our current property in East Winch. Nothing showed up at all on the local search (they are in my view, a complete waste of money, by the way, unless you already have a quarry in your garden it wouldn't show up anyway!) ]
When asked he confirmed that they do quarry right up to people's homes in some cases, including their site in Doncaster as an example.
It is also worth mentioning that there were a number of large display stands featuring their company, what they stand for, and a large aerial photo of what the finished Grandcourt Quarry would look like complete with lakes and... the extension to MIN 40 was included, as if they have already got it!
Still "just" a proposal at this stage (without planning permission) but clearly part of their plans to extend the site at some stage in the future.
Outlined in red and going right up to the garden fences of Town Close in East Winch Village!
The thought of the wholesale destruction at Grandcourt on the west side is bad enough - the site is massive, and will generate quite a bit of dust, I should imagine.
Andy Price said 75% of their staff have no trace of PM10 particles showing up
They also informed us that when it's really windy, they stop digging.
We spoke about air quality monitoring and they mentioned they could set up a monitor near the school.
Overall, it was business as usual for WBB/ Sibelco.
A friendly face for the public ("Working together for mineral solutions" is their slogan).
£100 of Raffle prizes generously donated by them for Leziate's Church Roof.
Wendy Twite (the writer of the "Blackmail" article in the Parish Newsletter) introduced herself to me, told me she wrote what she felt and promptly offered me some raffle tickets!
Regards
Neil Paddock
Chairman, EWAG
Webmaster ERASE and SaveEastWinch
PS Don't forget there is a meeting pending with Henry Bellingham MP and local councillors in attendance on Friday 21st November 2008, regarding MIN 40 at East Winch Village Hall.
http://saveeastwinch.blogspot.com/2008/10/joint-update-meeting-with-henry.html
