Labour councillors have called for the council to commission a full air quality audit around the site of Donoghue’s waste management and skip hire at last night’s Environment Committee (15 March). Residents have complained about dust pollution and debris caused by 7.5, 20 and 40 tonne lorries making hundreds of trips on a daily basis to and from Donoghues.
Cllr Alon Or-bach submitted a member’s item to the Environment Committee, and asked for the Committee to discuss what action the council could take to tackle the pollution. He also asked for any air quality audit to include the neighbouring children’s play area, nearby community centre and also Handley Grove which is next to the site.
The Committee did not have time to discuss the member’s item, but local resident and campaigner Lisa Pate spoke at the beginning of the meeting on the issue. Councillors at the committee meeting agreed with her that more needed to be done to tackle the problems caused by the Donoghue site, including action by the Council and Environment Agency.
The member’s item follows unsuccessful attempts by the Assets, Regeneration and Growth Committee (ARG) to find another location for the Donoghues Skip Hire to move to.
Labour councillors are running a petition calling for the Council to support the relocation of Donoghues, and will continue to raise the issue at future committee meetings.
Local resident and campaigner, Lisa Pate, who spoke on the issue at tonight’s committee said: “Residents have suffered for many years due to the dust and pollution from the Donaghues site. We need urgent action from the council on this issue.”
Cllr Alon Or-bach said said: “I am thankful for Lisa championing this issue – Barnet Council has been very slow to act on the poor air quality. We need this air quality audit to happen as soon as possible, and if legal pollution levels have been breached we need tough enforcement action to improve conditions straight away.
“I’m glad that the councillors who spoke at the meeting agreed with Lisa – residents have been putting up with the problems caused by this site for far too long. As I said at the meeting, alongside trying to get the Donoghue site moved, we need a more immediate solution to tackle the dust and poor air quality”.
Most residents here in Sandifer drive suffer too, increased cases of asthma, sore noses, nasal problems in their children, the problem is serious and has been for many years, but has been ignored, environmental health stating : Residents need to ring in. Any action should be imminent, Thanks to Lisa for meetings and commitment.