MY GOAL is to achieve signatures on this petition to show support to my open letter, so this isn't just me having a rant, it is the voice of the many reflected in my plea.

PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE and let's get Strongstry back working as a force, as a legacy of the Industrial Revolution, and as what once was a gorgeous little village which is now slowly going to ruin.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING CONCERNING STRONGSTRY TO: -

Jake Berry MP

Alyson Barnes

Rossendale Borough Council

Lancashire County Council

Melba Swintex – Mr Jonathan Gregg Dawson, Mr Paul Lee Harrison, Mr Michael Shaun Todd, Mr Phillip Roger Hyman

National Trust c/o Nik Taylor (to be escalated accordingly)

East Lancashire Railway – Richard Law

Environment Agency

Rossendale Free Press - thomas.george@reachplc.com

Bury Times - newsdesk@burytimes.co.uk

BBC North West

DEFRA

HSE

Forestcarbon.co.uk (please note Melba are mindlessly destroying woodland in a green belt/priority habitat and do not deserve to be accredited with supporting woodland projects).

Forestry Commission – important to read in case there is a retrospective environmental impact assessment required and in case any more work is planned.

24th February 2020

Dear All,

I am writing in my capacity as Secretary of the Strongstry Resident’s Association and as someone who cares a lot about the area I live in and am perfectly entitled to express myself to you all in this letter.  

This is an open letter to all parties concerned in a number of recent issues that are invoking feelings of contempt, disbelief and anger in our village of Strongstry. Both ourselves as a village and the whole of Stubbins feel very strongly about a number of interconnected concerns, hence the blanket letter, so everyone is well in the loop on all of our issues. I write from a sense of futility from our forgotten village, right on the edge of a borough, lost in time, unprioritized, unsupported and basically forgotten about.

And please do remember, you won’t like what you hear here, but we have EVERY RIGHT to be angry.

First and foremost is our issue with our new Antisocial neighbours, Melba Swintex.

Where to begIn.   Maybe I should start with the opening page of their website which has some truly impressive environmental credentials and a classic example of Spin. How many wonderful, mature trees have you just destroyed this weekend between Strongstry and Stubbins? We’re estimating over 100 at very least.

The impact of this is huge. Locally, everyone is very upset. As you know, this was a much loved path. We understand it is your land, but with no warning, no courtesy and no regard for impact. Performing disruptive noisy work at a weekend in a residential area and also sneakily doing it at a weekend so no-one was available to stop you at any office, anywhere! Low blow, Melba.  The loss of habitat just before Spring but also in general. The now absent barrier means your fairly noxious plastic fumes float on the air - unobstructed - to our village.  They eyesore this creates now everyone can see the factory in plain sight, you’ve taken away your tree-screen.  The extra noise we will suffer now from that screen of trees. And perhaps most importantly we are a FLOODING VILLAGE. Removing such massive, stabilising vegetation is absolutely mindless with complete disregard for impact, destabilising the soil and putting us at even greater risk. Also, looking at Lancashire County Council Mario Maps, you seem to have performed this mass clearance in a greenbelt area. And not all of your workers were wearing full PPE so have been reported to the HSE (one of a number of issues reported to the HSE, not operating within line really are you….). Issue after issue.

But let’s look at the bigger picture. One of our biggest threats the environment is CUTTING DOWN TREES. The only thing that will save this planet, we all know, is planting millions and billions of trees. So what are you playing at and how will you offset this localized ecological disaster you have created? It’s impressive you work with Forestcarbon, but do they know the other side? I suspect not. It’s impressive you won the Queen’s award for Enterprise which must have stroked the ego somewhat, but at what cost? What is your Corporate Social Responsibility policy?

DEFRA’s magic map shows all the woodland as priority habitat – deciduous woodland. So DEFRA – my question to you is what are the implications here?

Melba - Would you openly share your plans with us for this site over the next 10 years to arm the residents? I suspect not.  I do believe that Rossendale will love the income and the “figures” your highly successful business generates.  But I ask….at what price. There is a way to go about these things that is much more sympathetic than the chaos and anger you are leaving in your wake. At the very least opening pro-active communication channels would be a start.

Since you have moved into the factory last year, you have caused nothing but mindless un-neighbourly disruption. Always without courtesy of warning or communication.  Excessive production noise at all hours, traffic chaos. A noticeable increase in litter in the area (really!) Noxious fumes (when were these last tested? They are pretty bad…).  Antisocial behavior by a number of employees and management when challenged or questioned have been incredible rude and hostile.  You are not winning at how to make friends and influence people!  Unlicensed (or certainly not marked up) forklift trucks nearly taking both pedestrians and cars out on many occasions, the latest near miss in a string of near misses being this morning (and whilst we are on that, the lack of logic behind diverting all of the path users onto the road to increase everyone’s risk here…) unsightly metal fencing erected and a huge unsightly shipping container which broke the foundations of the underpass underneath the ELR when you put it in situ! Closure of a much loved footpath.  Taking down people’s Twitter and Facebook posts when you have been challenged, rather than responding to them. All very grown-up “we’re bigger than you” behaviour.

This isn’t just a rant, you are affecting peoples health, wellbeing, the environment and habitat here in our local community and seem to care not a jot. Your impact has been huge.  I do believe that the care that your company professes on your “About” page on the internet is a smokescreen at best.  The history of this village and indeed our surrounding area is tied to your factory and it is not getting the respect it deserves and you really should be ashamed.

ELR

Richard – thank you for attending a meeting with Cllr Janice Johnson and our Strongstry Resident’s Association Chair, Brian Kirkwood last Monday 17th February.

We expressed MASSIVE concern that, morally, you continued to run tourist trains through our flooding village with little disrespect to the catastrophe happening, despite many national rail services being cancelled due to dangerous conditions, which were certainly prominent in our area. Not only that but publicly congratulating your presumably reluctant workforce to achieve the impossible and operate through the storm.  Completely wrong and immoral on all counts. You did not send an engineer down to check the line first. The police called ahead to stop the trains once they reached our village. Some time later, yet another train turned up, only to be stopped by the fire service who were evacuating neighbours across the only dry/safe path – i.e., YOUR RAILWAY LINE. Completely wreckless behaviour. You running trains when very few were isn’t something to brag about on Twitter. Everyone else had it right. Safety first.

There is a HUGE hole next to the ELR Bridge where the culvert has collapsed and we nearly lost a neighbour. Water is continually widening this hole, gradually undercutting the foundations of the ELR Bridge within inches. Goodness knows what is going on underneath those bridge foundations because the level of undercutting we can currently see is huge and widening before our eyes.

I don’t believe you’ve had an engineer out to assess the impact either initially nor since, and it is changing daily. The old “we have no money” card flies out all too freely, but at what cost? A flooding village? A collapsed bridge?

We look forward to receiving the report regarding the drain on your land which caused a serious amount of surface water flooding to our village last time, coupled with the land drainage issues from the National Trust. I understand your drain issue are not to be taken in isolation, but they do not help and you HAVE to take responsible and proactive action here.

Now we already know that the ELR Relish the work that Melba Swintex are doing as it improves the views from their trains. Just like when they took down lots of beautiful (and most certainly not dangerous as claimed) mature trees last year simply to improve the view. Can you share with us the assessment you made on those trees before you removed? What a quick win for you, hey!

Rossendale and Lancashire County Councils

What pressure are you putting on Melba Swintex, if any, to fall into line? We have, as I write, received notification that Melba Swintex can do whatever they like with their land. Irrespective of impact and lack of impact assessment? Greenbelt? Defra Priority Habitat? Working at weekends in a residential area? I know you will welcome the business to the valley, but they shouldn’t be exempt from rules that are put in place to protect all, nor should they feel so big they can ignore these. I would welcome your full response, action plan here on all counts which I plan to feed back into the Village at the next resident’s meeting next week.

Our adopted section of road is destroyed from Storm Ciara. The majority of the damage was done from fast flowing culvert water this time (as opposed to river levels rising), and that is a direct result of the National Trust land. 6 of the 7 major local land drains are bust, so the water just flows freely down our road at force and speed enough to tear it up, leaving destruction behind. Will you be taking this up with the National Trust because we all really feel it’s their land that is causing our village such massive destruction and surface water issues that you then have to pay to fix, not to mention all the grid clearing from the silt that washes down.

And when will it be repaired?

National Trust

I ask you now escalate our local surface water issues from the Stubbins Estate and your land to highest level. You need to invest time and repairs here as a priority as the flooding to our village from your land is catastrophic at times and you are neglecting your responsibility.  Copied in to ensure the full-picture understanding is there and the appropriate, timely action takes place.

Overall

It seems we are in a world where the few become voiceless. Who will willingly support our cause? I’m not afraid to say what needs to be said and what we all know to be true.  Does anyone have the drive or the spark or passion to do this anymore? Is everyone going to just keep “getting away” with not doing the right thing?  Too much inaction, too much passing the buck.   Too much being ignored for the wrong reasons. Lost morals. Lost integrity. Keep quiet for a quiet life. Lost sense of what is right and what is wrong.

I URGE YOU ALL TO BE BETTER THAN YOU ARE.