'I want us to have legal defensible evidence' Action group's Go Fund Me appeal for air montiors in Fleetwood
Protestors who want to see Fleetwood’s Jameson Road landfill site closed are fundraising to buy air quality metres.
Action Against Jameson Road Landfill pressure group has set up a Go Fund Me to raise £1,700 - more than £1,000 raised within the first day or so of it being made public.
Transwaste released figures last week from independent air quality montoring through a 690 day period which revealed toxic gases from the site were within legal UK limits.
Jess Brown from Action Against James Road Landfill said: “There is so many faults with the air quality report such as gaps in data.
It’s too far away from the site, it even states it’s not suitable for strict compliance, it’s all based on averages not real time spikes.
“We are setting up a Go Fund Me so we can get our own gas monitors so we can see the truth of what we are breathing in.
“I am so fed up of the authorities claiming everything is fine yet they base it all off flawed monitoring and take no accountability at all.
“At the end of the day we are still breathing in this toxic stench and being made ill - that is a fact! They can hide behind whatever they want but we know the truth.”
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Behind the Go Fund Me is Fleetwood resident Sarah Myers, who has a background in academic research.
Through Go Fund Me, she said: “I would like us to invest in four calibrated air monitors so we have independent, highly specific and legally defensible evidence.
“I would like us to create a body of data to verify our specific exposure to hydrogen sulphide on a daily, hourly and minute-by-minute basis.
“I am proposing we recruit four data collectors through our existing community protest groups and hold the monitors as a community asset.
“If every resident donates 20p-£1, or whatever they can afford, it will both pay for the monitors and promote a real sense of collective empowerment.”
“Our understanding is the safe limit for Hydrogen Sulphide is 10ppm (parts per million) for a ten minute exposure.
“It is highly toxic with 100ppm considered an immediate danger to life and health. Monitoring needs to be every minute with every 24hrs to give a true picture of risk.
“They need to be calibrated, in multiple locations, and meet specific requirements regarding accuracy, chain of custody and technical competance.
“There is no guarantee the monitors will corroborate our experience, or indeed influence Council, Regulator or Operator behaviour.
“However, evidence from other communities suggest datasets being a linchpin in enforcement.
“The proposal is to work with established local protest groups like Action Against Jamieson Road Landfill, to recruit four volunteers within one mile of the landfill siute who will receive initial training.”
Each monitor costs £399 plus £20 carriage.
To dontate, visit Air Monitors for Fleetwood