Dispatches Channel 4 - Food for Thought

Just a reminder to set your vids for 8pm Channel 4 this evening.(Monday). Traction Man, he of the blog 'Notes from a Hospital Bed' is on and studying hospital food. And it ain't getting any better..

Dr Rant is Back!!!!!

Dr Rant is back! Read here for details of his imprisonment and release..

I think it's time for a celebration and a call to war. Freeeeeeeeeeeeedom........

A School, A Landfill, A Mess

I'm taking a bit of a diversion tonight to talk about something which has been occupying me for a year and a half now. You might remember that I ran in a council by election in June 2009. One of the issues that I ran on was the proposed build of a new school on the site of a former landfill. This was a part of Drumpellier Country Park and it had been levelled and turned into football fields which were well used. The engineering reports warned of elevated levels of nickel, arsenic and other nasties (stuff from the local steelworks went into it). It also warned of methane and hydrogen sulphide. The ground is an alluvial flood plain and a peat bog. It is undermined and there were warnings that if the ground was disturbed, contamination could find its way into the groundwater and the surrounding watercourses. I, along with several others went along to the final planning meeting to protest. We were overruled. The work started in September and since then, grouting has been going on. (Grouting is where old mines are filled with concrete to steady them.) It's now February and this is the scene;






This is a turf cut from an area just behind the site. The grass is sodden and it's like walking on jelly. There's more where that came from.




Have a look at this. Here's a picture of a drain about four weeks ago.

















Here's the same drain a couple of weeks later. (Note the same takeaway carton and bottle)



















And how about this horror. I'm not sure what this is; my best guess is it's some kind of capped shaft or drain. If you've any idea, I'd be grateful.

















Foul, isn't it? So why am I telling you about this? Well, basically because noone else is interested. Our local paper hasn't got back to us. The council is dragging its heels. The school don't want to know; they just want their new building. We have had a smell in the community centre for the past six weeks, that sits on the site; also a smell of rotten eggs over by the houses that stand on it. There is another smell like rotten pine that is cropping up near the railway and in a local street where there is a capped shaft. This orange stuff is cropping up in a burn behind the park. That flows into a series of watercourses to the Clyde. And nobody gives a single solitary f*** about it.

The trouble is, of course, we're not Perth. We're not a nice town sitting on a salmon river. We're an industrial town and unlike Loreal, we're not worth it. People see us literally as a dumping ground for all kinds of crap; just two miles north of us is Europe's biggest superdump at Greengairs. Let me give you an idea of what a dumping ground we are. Some years ago, a whale was beached in Dundee. Did they bury the whale there? No. They put it on a lorry and drove it all the way to Greengairs and dumped it there. The poor thing stank the place out for weeks. In a thousand years time, some archeologist will dig it up and wonder how a whale swam so far inland.

However, I digress. The point is, I'm fond of my town. And we produced most of the wealth of Scotland in iron, steel and coal. We got a bit dirty in the process. A lot of people made a lot of money out of us. And somehow, that means that we're looked down on. Noone cares what happens to us. They'd rather write about the plague of potholes in Glasgow, than the safety of a thousand kids in Lanarkshire.

I don't know what writing this article will do, apart from making me feel a bit better about things. I feel sick every time I think about where this could go and even sicker that noone will report it. I'm going to make a prediction; before this is over someone is going to end up dead as a result of the decision to build there. I'm sure there'll be interest then, but is there nobody out there who believes in life before death? That just because people come from a poor area, doesn't mean that they matter less? That we owe something to the towns that produced our country's wealth and paid the price for it?

Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?