Ivybridge is undergoing a bit of a political re-invigoration – not only is the town up in arms about the siting of an incinerator less than a hop, skip and jump away from the town centre, but they are also finding out about the importance of active political representation – shame on you Cllr Croad! Not surprising then, that a by-election for the town council has a massive 11 per cent turn out (still it beats not having an election, ehh, East Devon?). Frankie Dolan, who set up the EcoIvy site got in touch to explain why she stood
Frankie told the PRSD: “I’m afraid I didn’t win, but am delighted to say that 180 people did come out and vote for me, which was incredible since I figure I only know about 20 people in the area, and didn’t even start campaigning for myself until last weekend. Thanks a million to those people that were supporting me and the kind emails and texts I received wishing me luck.”
It was Jim Lloyd who bagged the seat, with 226 votes.
But what got Frankie involved in local politics?
“Until recently I did not have any interest in local government or local politics, personally taking a much greater interest in international affairs and humanitarian causes, with the attitude that I didn’t really care that much about how the local buses were running, whether our roads were being well maintained, what was happening to my rubbish, etc. As far as I was concerned all that was quite trivial, was probably all being dealt with somewhere pretty efficiently and I had my own life and problems to deal with,” she said.
“But then I had a nasty visit from the Swine Flu that made me very aware of my own mortality, and worried sick for my children too! Maybe it was that, or some kind of mid-life crisis, but whatever it was I suddenly decided that I should take more of an interest in the decisions that are taken all around me every day, and I should start to make the effort to have a positive impact with all that I do. It was no longer OK to live my own life, keeping myself to myself. We only get one shot at this life, and I would like to be able to say with a clear heart when I am on my death bed that ‘I did my best’.
Frankie took that attitude to the world of local politcs and started talking to some local politicians.
“It was then that I discovered that an application for planning permission to build a large incinerator at Lee Mill, less than two miles from my home, was about to be submitted,” she said.
“None of my neighbours knew anything about it, and yet if planning permission was granted they would not be able to do anything to stop it. This I thought was wrong, so I set up EcoIvy, started knocking on doors to tell people what was going on and organised a public meeting to tell people what was being planned.”
Now that the debate had been made public, people flocked to get their views know, and after one public meeting the MP has taken a look at the issue, and is organising his own.
• A political career doesn’t mean holding office? Comments below, please
(image: Frankie Dolan)
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I’d be grateful if Frankie Dolan would look at this electoral ward map showing infant death rates in Kirklees and the letter sent me by Health Protection Agency’s boss admitting no examination of rates of illness or premature deaths at electoral ward level around any incinerator:
http://ukhr.org/incineration/kirklees.pdf
http://www.ukhr.org/incineration/justinmccracken8june2009.pdf
http://www.mlive.com/living/saginaw/index.ssf/2009/04/saginaw_county_infant_mortalit.html
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/1592749.Concerns_over_infant_death_rates_in_Chingford_Green/
http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west-london-news/local-hounslow-news/2008/08/21/baby-death-rates-soar-109642-21573869/
Kind regards,
Michael Ryan,
Shrewsbury
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RE: Will the HPA offer any evidence that the proposed Peterhead incinerator will have “no negative effects on residents” (Sky News, 8 December 2009)?
From: Justin McCracken (Justin.McCracken@hpa.org.uk)
Sent: 21 December 2009 11:59:54
To: Michael Ryan
Cc: Cllr Alan Buchan (cllr.a.buchan@aberdeenshire.gov.uk); maliks@parliament.uk; Daniel Kawczynski (kawczynskid@parliament.uk); Jon Simcock (jsimcock@shropshirestar.co.uk); Dave Morris (dmorris@shropshirestar.co.uk); p.elliott@imperial.ac.uk; Frances Pollitt (Frances.Pollitt@HPA.org.uk)
Dear Mr Ryan,
Thank you for your letter dated 8th December. You have written to me about incinerators on a number of occasions and I do not think that I can add much to my earlier replies. As you know, our recent statement on Municipal Waste Incinerators deals with the subject in some detail and we will be discussing the possibility of a national study of infant mortality with Professor Elliott.
I am surprised by your criticism of Professor Elliott’s work. He is a most distinguished epidemiologist with a long series of important publications to his name. If you have points to make about his published work it might have been more appropriate to have written to the editors of the journals in which it was published or to Professor Elliott himself. I am copying your letter and this, to him.
Yours sincerely
Justin McCracken
Chief Executive
From: Michael Ryan
Sent: 08 December 2009 15:52
To: Justin McCracken
Cc: Cllr Alan Buchan; maliks@parliament.uk; Daniel Kawczynski; Jon Simcock; Dave Morris
Subject: Will the HPA offer any evidence that the proposed Peterhead incinerator will have “no negative effects on residents” (Sky News, 8 December 2009)?
Dear Mr McCracken,
You should tell Paul Elliott, upon whose incinerator/cancer “study” you’ve relied, how to construct a study. Professor Elliott didn’t bother about wind direction or the use of a “control”, ie an area with no pollution source to use as a comparison. The Elliott study compared cancer rates in two concentric circles around incinerators, ie “like with like” and found no significant difference.
I’ve not sought to prove that incinerators cause infants to die – but what I have proved beyond any reasonable doubt is that according to Office for National Statistics data, the infant death rates in electoral wards which are subject to PM2.5 emissions from incinerators and other industrial sources (eg power stations, oil refineries etc) are always high. The ONS data also reveals electoral wards where there have been zero infant deaths for many consecutive years and these “zero infant death wards” are always in locations that are free from PM2.5 emissions from incinerators & other industrial sources.
Cllr Buchan represents Peterhead residents and he’ll have read in Buchan Observer of 17 November 2009 that I’ve examined infant death rates in electoral wards around incinerators.
Here’s a ward map of Kirklees Borough in Yorkshire which has ten wards where the 2004-2008 infant death rate greater than or equal to 7.5 per 1,000 live births:
http://ukhr.org/incineration/kirklees.pdf
Note that the ten high infant death wards are all linked and if you look at the same set of data for the wards in Bradford, you’ll find another ten high infant death (ie 7.5 per 1,000 & above) forming a continuous “chain” around the Ciba incinerator which is in “Wyke” ward in southern part of Bradford. These ten “high infant death wards” in Bradford that are part of the 20-ward “chain” are: Tong, Little Horton, Great Horton, City, Toller, Heaton, Thornton, Wrose, Eccleshill, and Bradford Moor. There’s also a group of six Bradford wards with 2004-2008 infant death rates ranging frpom 5.0 to 7.4 per 1,000 live births contained within the ten high infant death wards: Wyke, Royds, Wibsey, Clayton & Fairweather, Manningham, and Bowling & Barkerend…continues
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Many thanks for that info Michael! It was only last week that I was looking at infant mortality rates via your website and it was my plan to put together a page on just that for the ecoivy website. Your site is proving to be a very useful resource of information – many thanks for your work! Frankie
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Big Issue in the North had article about my incinerator research (26 April-2 May 2010) by Mark Metcalf:
http://markwrite.co.uk/Incinerator.htm
The map referred to in above article is at:
http://ukhr.org/incineration/kirkleesarea.pdf
This is more recent article which mentions suicide increase in Bridgend after Crymlyn Burrows incinerator started.
http://www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk/runcorn-widnes-news/runcorn-widnes-local-news/2010/07/08/runcorn-facing-suicide-and-infant-mortality-increases-claims-incinerator-researcher-55368-26804926/
Here’s relevant question by Darren Johnson. Southwark’s 2008 infant mortality rate was 7.0 per 1,000 live births. Kingston upon Thames was London Borough with lowest rate in 2008 at 0.9 per 1,000. The 2002-2008 aggregated data at ward level shows that incinerator emissions are obviously linked to high infant death rates.
http://legacy.london.gov.uk/assembly/assemmtgs/2010/mqtjan27/minutes/written-answers.pdf
Incinerators
Question No: 41 / 2010
Darren Johnson
A constituent asks, is there any evidence to suggest that the SELCHP and Kings College Hospital incinerators which flank Southwark contributed to the Borough having the highest infant mortality rate in London in 2008?
Answer from the Mayor:
My health team are making enquiries to get hold of the necessary data to furnish you with a full reply and I will send this to you as soon as possible.
In the meantime you might suggest to your constituent that they write to their local Director of Public Health with their request. The address is:
NHS Southwark
PO BOX 64529
London
SE1P 5LX
Tel: 020 7525 0400
*
Infant morality rates
Question No: 42 / 2010
Darren Johnson
Will you publish electoral ward-level data and a map showing the 2002-2008 infant mortality
rates in London?
Answer from the Mayor:
In some boroughs there are only five infant deaths a year, so rates at ward level for single years would be extremely unreliable.
While DMAG could combine several years worth of data to calculate a ward rate, one of the stipulations of their licence is that they do not publish the data online. If you wish to discuss the data in more detail can I suggest you contact Andrew Collinge, Assistant Director of Intelligence,
on extension 4652.
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