| On
Tuesday, Tony Juniper, Director of Friends of the Earth
and a leading international environmentalist, paid a
visit to the Radley Lakes to see for himself the destruction
being wreaked on the area by the dumping of pulverised
fuel ash (PFA) from the coal-fired power station at
Didcot. Mr Juniper has fond memories of the Radley Lakes
from 30 years ago when he regularly visited them as
a child. He was dismayed at the destruction of so many
once beautiful lakes and accused RWE npower of hypocrisy
in claiming to be environmentally conscientious and
yet willing to commit an act of environmental vandalism
and desecration by destroying Thrupp Lake.
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Tony
Juniper
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In January this year, RWE
npower, who operate the Didcot power stations, received
planning permission from Oxfordshire County Council
to dump waste pulverised fuel ash into a 10 hectare
lake, a naturally restored gravel pit, at Radley, much
to the dismay of the local community who fervently wish
to preserve the remaining lakes for their, beauty, their
amenity value and their profuse wildlife. [See
News Story]Since then, the campaign to save the
lakes, now in its third year, has continued unabated
and is receiving more and more support from various
quarters. Today it was Tony Juniper, internationally
recognised environmentalist and Director of Friends
of the Earth, who offered his support to the campaign
to save the lakes and to promote less damaging and more
sustainable ways of disposing of waste ash. He condemned
the power station operators for their lazy and careless
attitude to the problem.
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| In
a statement, he said RWE npower should find more
responsible and appropriate ways of dealing with its
waste .Filling these lakes with ash is a lazy and outdated
practice. They would not be able to do this in Germany
where they are based. Why do they think they can do
it here?
These
lakes are of enormous importance for both local people
and wildlife and the company needs to respect that or
it will forever be in the environmental hall of shame.
Tony
Juniper has a personal interest in the Radley Lakes,
as they were a childhood haunt of his, one which gave
him the opportunity to learn about and to appreciate
first hand the natural environment and wildlife it sustains.
Speaking of Thrupp Lake , he said For me, as a child,
this lake was really an outdoor classroom. I used to
do a lot of bird watching, studying of plants and fishing
here; it was a wonderful place, and it still is. A lot
of the wildlife is still here. I think such beautiful
places are now so precious, especially as more of the
countryside comes under threat from road building, industrial
development, retail development and, of course, local
housing. Protecting places like this into the future
is going to be a really important part of maintaining
this country's quality of life.
Places
like the Radley Lakes are of enormous importance, not
only for their wildlife, but because they are near to
urban areas, which means they provide places where children
and everybody else can easily go to experience natural
habitats for themselves.
It
would be very sad if kids in the future did not have
that opportunity merely so that the place could be turned
into a toxic waste dump.
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Tony Juniper
gazes across Thrupp Lake remembering happy times spent
this place |
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| He
called upon Oxfordshire County Council to revoke the
planning consent, and for local bodies to look hard
at how The Lakes could be turned into a nature park
for future generations. |
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| Speaking of the wider picture, he said One
of the things that is really important about this particular
case is the way in which the Developer, in this case RWE
Npower, has managed to convince the County Council to
do what it wanted. There are big lessons there for the
whole country in terms of the role of local communities
in shaping the decisions that affect people - because
Big Business has too much of an ear in determining development
priorities. This is becoming even more important now.
More power going to be passed to Big Business, if the
Government has its way, with the new planning white paper
that it is currently debating. This means that there is
every reason for people like me to become involved in
grass roots campaigns like this, because, in the end,
they will determine how the national picture will pan
out as well. |
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| Dr Basil Crowley, Chairman of Save Radley
Lakes, said We wholeheartedly welcome Tony Juniper's
support for our campaign. We hope that government will
take heed of what he says, and show its commitment to
the environment by admitting that mistakes have been made
here and, most particularly, by reversing the decision
to allow RWE npower to destroy a wonderful and valued
piece of Oxfordshire countryside, just to provide RWE
npower with a convenient means of disposing of its waste.
This is waste that, in fact, could be and should be recycled
sustainably for the benefit of the environment generally,
and for the Radley Lakes. |
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| An application to have the two threatened
lakes declared a Town Green, under the 1965 Commons Registration
Act, is currently underway. [See
News Story] The Public Inquiry to determine this resumes
on Wednesday 20th June, at Radley College . If this is
successful, RWE npower will be forced to find other, hopefully
environmentally less damaging, ways of disposing of the
ash. If not, the fate of The Lakes is firmly in the hands
of RWE npower, unless Government feels able to take responsibility
for, and to remedy, the situation. |
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