Letters to the Editor - September 05th

Sep 5 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Pollution fear for region

ON ACCOUNT of the Shell oil refinery at Stanlow, we live in one of the most polluted parts of the United Kingdom.

Chemical fumes rises constantly from the chimneys at Stanlow. As the wind blows often from the south-west, the bulk of this incinerated petroleum waste is dumped on Helsby, Frodsham and Runcorn. Not only is Stanlow the centre of Shell’s operations; it is the only Shell refinery in the UK, employing 800 people and processing 12m tonnes of crude oil a year.

Technical information about refinery emissions is readily available from the Shell website, www.shell.com – we learn that the major pollutants are carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (substances that vaporize and enter the atmosphere). The exact chemical nature of these VOCs is not stated, and their effect on the ozone layer is unclear.

We might have expected recent years to see a reduction in the general level of pollution, but this is not the case. The amount of hydrogen sulphide flared at Stanlow in 2004 was about 15 tonnes per month.

In other respects, too, the situation is worsening. The demand for "cleaner" fuels in the motor industry means that toxic waste products which used to be emitted through car exhausts are now extracted at the refinery and released directly into the environment.

In the short-term, we must press with the utmost urgency for serious attention to eliminating pollution from the Stanlow refinery. But beyond that we must surely secure the relocation of Shell’s UK operation to a region that is not a major population centre. Then our Mersey shoreline will make a wonderful country park, with a nature reserve, golf course, water sports and leisure centre, hosting the North-West’s leading vacation and conference facilities and providing unlimited employment opportunities. Stanlow: a holiday riviera or an oil refinery? The choice is ours.

Robert Dann (Dr), via email

Missed opportunity

FROM the letters published in your columns last week, it would seem that some of your readers regarded last Tuesday’s 800th anniversary celebrations in Liverpool as a triumph.

This speaks loudly of the expectations of Liverpudlians these days. Blow up a few balloons and light fireworks, admittedly very good fireworks, and you have done enough.

What else was there? A service attended by the great and good at St Nick’s Church on the Pier Head, a colourful procession, a couple of stalls on Old Hall Street, a painted board through which people were invited to peep their heads so they would look medieval, and a couple of listless birds of prey in Exchange Flags.

As far as I could see, that was about it. Yet this was the city’s 800th anniversary – a huge occasion in its history. The whole year should have been dedicated to celebrations.

There should have been medieval banquets, themed pubs, archery contests, minstrels, maidens in distress (in the knights in shining armour sense) and many other attractions.

Thousands of tourists come to the city because of The Beatles. But most of them would have left not even knowing about Liverpool’s Royal Charter. And let us not here dwell on the Mathew Street Festival fiasco.

Some of the above ideas might seem a bit tacky. But, if the Capital of Culture people had any real nous, they would have been on to it. Can you imagine an ambitious city in the USA missing an opportunity like this? There won’t be another one in our lifetime.

However, I would like to congratulate the Daily Post on its magnificent souvenir edition.

R Roberts, Huyton

A depth of kindness

AS AN atheist who runs a Liverpool children’s charity, I was struck by the dignity and reverence shown by Mother Teresa throughout her life.

It is 10 years today(Wed) since Mother Teresa died. She dedicated her life to the service of her God, working with the sick and poor in one of the most deprived cities on our planet.

Born Agnes Bojaxhiu (1910) in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire, she took the name Sister Teresa in Ireland, where she began her training as a nun with the Loreto Sisters. She founded her order in 1948 and went out to work in the slums of Calcutta caring for about 4m sick people each year. She was accused by Hindus in India of trying to convert the sick to Catholicism by stealth and criticised by liberals in her own church who disliked her conservative stance on abortion and contraception. But I feel that she gave the word kindness a whole new depth in contrast to the shallow celebrity lifestyle played out by Princess Diana.

Matt Byrne, New Brighton

Cruel world

THE past few weeks have really brought home what a cruel and selfish world we seem to be living in.

From the senseless death of Garry Newlove, in Warrington, to the shooting of Rhys Jones and the beating of the pensioner for a few pounds, every day brings more stories that are simply heart- breaking. So bad does it seem sometimes that it is a wonder anyone risks procreating only to bring more unfortunates into this hellish existence.

I know I sound pessimistic, but it is becoming increasingly dif- ficult to be anything else. Politic- ians make great promises, but things only ever seem to get worse.

If I had my time again, I know I would not want to bring children into the world the way it is now.

P Mather, Wavertree

Food fight

I AM not at all shocked to learn that more children than ever are heading for obesity in Merseyside.

Every day as I leave work, I walk through the town centre close to my home at around the same time as many of the schools are letting out. Without fail, I will see kids pouring into newsagents and coming out laden with sweets and fizzy drinks. If it is not newsagents, it is takeaways where they gorge themselves on burgers and other fatty foods.

It is all right saying schools should do more for children’s health, but what good is that if the moment they are out of the gates they stuff themselves?

Discipline is what is needed and that has to come from parents not teachers.

J Moore, Allerton

All-consuming

HAVE we ever, as a nation, been as obsessed with food as we are right now? If it is not how fat it is making us, then it is where it came from, how it was produced and whether we have damaged the environment getting it onto our plates.

Your front page on Monday was a case in point. The main story was about children getting fatter and just to the left of that you told us that Liverpool’s biggest ever food and drink festival was starting.

We need to get a grip on this before what we consume, consumes us.

Chris Latham, Warrington

Asylum fears

WITH the number of migrants arriving in Liverpool each day, I wonder if Liverpool City Council’s bold claim that they will bend over backwards to help asylum seekers is about to bite it on its behind?

With the NHS at full stretch, our schools full, housing at a premium and the immigration office unable to cope with the new arrivals, not to mention the government apparently unwilling to budge on its open-door policy, they are going to have to build a town as big as Kirkby unless something drastic happens.

S Meadows, Tuebrook

Real culture

WHAT A great coup for Liverpool that an iconic piece of art has arrived in the city.

I am of course referring to Rodin’s The Kiss, which has been installed at Tate Liverpool.

It, along with other masterpieces that will be on display next year, shows Liverpool really does deserve to be Capital of Culture.

I hope everyone will make the most of this opportunity to see some of the greatest artworks in the world exhibited in our city.

Mrs G Jones, Aigburth

Read my lips

I WAS amused to read about Liverpool Council meetings being overheard on a hearing aid. It reminded me of the days of the Hatton era when Del Boy was convinced that the council chamber was bugged by Liberal Democrats.

In fact, there was nothing sinister going on. The explanation for it was that the Liberal Democrat councillor Rosemary Cooper could lip-read every word that Derek uttered.

R McArt (Mrs), L15

Thank you

ON BEHALF of the residents and committee members of Conway Residents Association in Liverpool 6, I would like to thank Cllr Jane Corbett for all the work she has done with the Conway residents association over the past 12 months.

We are thankful for her getting the alley-gating in areas of the estate where anti-social behaviour was bad and for getting the bollards on the corner of Norwood Grove.

Although times have not always been easy for Jane, she has got there and done the work. Although we still have a number of problems going on, it is nice to know that we have a hard-working councillor who is available to help and be there 24 hours a day.

Gerard Woodhouse, L6

Scare them

I COMPLETELY agree that the age of criminality should be lowered (Daily Post, September 3). There are youngsters under 10 committing horrific crimes and they need to be dealt with accordingly. That said, those over the age of criminality rarely get the punishment they deserve in my opinion.

As for making court rooms more child friendly, that is ridiculous – they are supposed to be scary places, that is the whole point.

H Thomas, Aintree