I'm backing people in Ospringe, Oare and Davington fighting to stop the expansion of an industrial site that would mean thousands more lorries thundering through their villages.
Expansion of the Recycling Works at Oare could mean thousands more lorries driving through Oare and Ospringe. There are already too many lorries thundering through Ospringe and Davington, rattling homes and historic buildings and contributing to pollution. No wonder residents are seriously worried about these proposals. At least 60 people came to the meeting last week and the campaign groups have my full support.
I joined residents last week for a meeting of UPROARE, a group campaigning to stop the expansion of the East Kent Recycling Plant in Oare and protect the environment.
The plant has a strict limit of 40 trucks entering and exiting every day, but campaigners have filmed and counted more than 100 lorries in a single day. The Secretary of UPROARE, Robert Morrison, showed striking footage of large, articulated lorries, and trucks carrying skips, travelling up the narrow lane to the plant.
If the plant’s application to expand is successful it could mean 50,000 trucks a year barrelling along narrow lanes through villages like Ospringe, Davington and Oare.
Campaigners say this will pollute and damage Oare Creek and surroundings, an area of scientific interest and a bird sanctuary, and destroy the Saxon Shore Way.
The landscape around Oare and the creek is precious. It's a haven for wildlife and a site of special scientific interest - hardly an appropriate location for a large and polluting waste site. I am calling on the Environment Agency to come and visit the site and see the effects all the pollution is having for themselves, and I’ve written to Michael Gove asking him to intervene.
The expansion of the works would affect my constituents and also people on the Sittingbourne side of the constituency boundary, so I'm working with Gordon Henderson to stop the industrial plant expanding.