Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Banned Sonae material back up, the end could be nigh for Sonae

Four Cough Sonae | 27.02.2007 19:46 | Liverpool

Sonae videos, photos and articles back up on-line.

The Kirkby Times campaigned since 2002 on this issue of the pollution caused by the Sonae factory situated in Kirkby. The Liverpool Times is re-publishing the Sonae material taken down after legal moves.

The Liverpool Echo ran almost a full page story on Sonae. The article hit out at Sonae and it seems that The Kirkby and now Liverpool Times message of ‘KICK THESE POLLUTING CRIMINALS OUT OF KIRKBY’ is finding a new lease of life as the councillors and even George Howarth give credibility to the idea that Sonae has to go.

Maybe even God Almighty has His hand in this one. After all, we began putting all the old Sonae material up, and then Sonae went on fire!

Toxic Sonae

The Echo chips in and breaks the news that….

“CHIPBOARD firm Sonae is under pressure again today as politicians backed an inquiry into the latest accident at its controversial plant.

Dozens of fire fighters rushed to the Kirkby factory last week when a pump room caught fire, believed to be caused by leaking oil.

The blaze joined the long list of incidents at the Moss Lane firm, dogged by controversy since its 1999 opening.

Today, Knowsley North MP George Howarth echoed support from Knowsley council for a top-level investigation.”

Hold on, George Howarth calling for investigating Sonae?

Given that he stood by and allowed Sonae to locate here in the first instance, it seems a bit rich that he now jumps in to hog the limelight as if he is the ‘Swampy’ the ‘Eco warrior’ holed up under Sonae.

The Echo tells us that both Mr Howarth and the local Council have been….

“bombarded with calls from residents and factory workers worried about their safety”

We’ve had 8 years of this – with complaints pouring in over those years.

The Echo continues with George Howarth pledging to bring the issue up in parliament. If we as quick to do this as he was to vote in the bombing of the Iraqis then he would have done this years ago.

More from the Echo…

“Mr Howarth said: “I intend to outline the catalogue of events at Sonae.

“I will be urging ministers to press the HSE to ensure that unless and until the factory is guaranteed safe, it should remain closed.”

The events in Sonae have been outlined on The Kirkby Times, and now as we republish all the old material we will see that this issue of Sonae has gone far beyond any acceptable pollution trade off for a few local jobs.

The closure of Sonae would see Northwood become a far better place to live. Just to be able to look up and not see that damned chimney would probably make your house price go up 10%, and make you exercise more, as the Sonae pollution zone is taken away giving back a little bit of a green zone back to the people.
Compensation for health and environmental impact.

Needless to say, the issue of compensation hangs over us. People who get slightly bruised in a ‘whiplash’ accident feel pain for a second and a bit of an ache for a few weeks (or a few months with a good QC). But the Sonae pollution of 8 years standing and the years to come is a matter which should be looked at.

We need to demand that Sonae not only leave, but they also need to compensate every last person in the pollution radius. Perhaps more important is that they pay millions for clean up of the areas they have infected with filth. After all future generations will be using this land.
With that problem out of the way, it might kick start community politics and give working class people all over Liverpool and the UK a much needed confidence booster that we can actually win something other than a body bag in Iraq or Afghanistan.

This struggle to close Sonae down is not some phoney make do political cause threw together by a ‘rent-a-mob’ of professional agitators - it’s about working class people fighting for better conditions and in doing so, meeting the usual obstacles of local government, national government and big business. It’s a battle of good versus evil. Just one of many little community fights in the UK being fought for by ordinary people who have decided that there is no-one that will stand up for us.

In Kirkby, the schools have spoken out against Sonae, the parents and teachers have done so also. Locals GP’s have spoken out, as have the churches and many individual councillors and political activists of all shades. The consensus of opinion might sway on some matters, but with Sonae, it’s a case of everyone pretty much singing from the same hymn book.

Situating the Sonae factory here was an injustice to begin with.

Kirkby already has enough pollution with one of the biggest industrial estates in Europe on our doorstep and an increasing corridor of car fumes cutting through the town along with the green lungs of the town (ie, grass, trees) being concreted over.

The sell off of school fields and the loss of hundreds of acres of green areas all points towards Sonae needing to be taken out of the equation. The area they occupy can be used for something that does not pollute Kirkby.

Note, all the old Sonae material taken off the Kirkby Times is going back on The Liverpool Times - the process is under-way so if anyone wants to use links to videos to add to the material already up here, feel free to do so.

Click here to see the latest Sonae material as it goes up

Four Cough Sonae

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech