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Posts Tagged ‘asbestos’
Members of a Chew Valley action group are to present a detailed report opposing a second application for an asbestos landfill dump.
Campaigners are fighting against plans to dump 645,000 tonnes of the mineral at Stowey Quarry, near Chew Valley Lake.
Stowey Sutton Action Group was due to make its report public today and give further details about why it believes the renewed application should be turned down.
A previous decision to allow the application was quashed by B&NES planning committee in September after the council accepted it had not correctly followed the planning procedure in letting those living nearby know the details of the plan.
But the applicant, Oaktree Environmental, has now re-entered the application.
Campaigners have until Thursday to object before the official consultation period ends.
Members have put together a detailed 18-page report on why they believe that B&NES should again turn down the application. The report goes through the negative effects the dump would have on the area.
The Supreme Court in its judgment ruled, “for the purposes of employer liability policies, the negligent exposure of an employee to asbestos during the policy period has a sufficient causal link with subsequently arising mesothelioma to trigger the insurer’s obligations to indemnify the employer.”
Neal Stone, director of policy and communications at the British Safety Council, said: “This is a very important judgment in favour of sensible health and safety and will be welcomed by thousands of workers exposed to asbestos in the course of their work, their employers and others committed to preventing the deadly consequences of work-related diseases.”
The Supreme Court in a judgment published on 28 March 2012 upheld appeals from Unite the union, employers and others concerning the liability of insurers to employers where their employees have contracted mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos.
One of the issues on which the appeal was made to the Supreme Court was when mesothelioma was “sustained” or “contracted” – when the employee was wrongfully exposed to asbestos or when the disease actually occurs in the employee. Trade unions argued that had it not been for the Supreme Court ruling many thousands of workers exposed to mesothelioma with fatal consequences would not be compensated for the loss they, or their families, had suffered.
The campaign to prevent asbestos being dumped in a Somerset quarry near the reservoir that supplies much of Bristol’s water has received the backing of an MP.
Protesters fighting against fresh plans for the disused Stowey Quarry to be used for dumping have less than ten days until the consultation period finishes.
The plans for the quarry in the Chew Valley were initially approved by Bath and North East Somerset Council last summer, but the decision was revoked after residents launched judicial review proceedings claiming the council had not followed due process.
The planning application has since been resubmitted by Oaktree Environmental.
It could see more than 600,000 tonnes of hazardous waste from around the country dumped in Somerset.
Tory North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was supporting opponents of the scheme, who fear asbestos could leach into Chew Valley reservoir.
Mr Rees-Mogg told the BBC: “If it were up to me I wouldn’t agree it, but it’s not up to me.
A leading trade union lawyer has dismissed expectations that a Supreme Court ruling will prompt a rush of asbestos-related litigation. The ‘trigger case’ judgment last week ruled in favour of allowing insurance claims by families of people who died after exposure to asbestos.
Following the ruling, the trade union Unite suggested that ‘thousands’ of cases would be launched now the insurers’ ‘responsibility holiday’ was over.
But Ian McFall, head of asbestos policy at national trade union firm Thompsons, said obstacles preventing meritorious claims for diseases such as mesothelioma were still in place. ‘Any talk of floodgates opening is ill-informed nonsense,’ said McFall. The judgment merely ‘restores the status quo’, he said.
McFall said changes to the no win, no fee system and abolishing the recoverability of after-the-event insurance – which covers medical tests and tracking down insurers – meant cases were still difficult to launch.
The cost of tracking down beneficiaries of decades-old policies is also blocking hundreds of cases, he said. It is almost two years since a government consultation recommended setting up a ‘fund of last resort’, funded by insurers, but there is still no sign of progress from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Protesters against the dumping of asbestos near one of North Somerset and Bristol’s main water sources are preparing to fight another planning battle.
A planning application to store 645,000 tonnes of “stable non-reactive hazardous waste” in Stowey Quarry in the Chew Valley has been re-advertised – with a decision expected later this year.
Concerned residents have now launched a second campaign to stop what they fear would be a “dangerous” development.
Tomorrow they are holding a protest at Chew Valley Lake, and they are encouraging people to make their views heard on the plans.
Oaktree Environmental wants to store waste in the quarry over the next 10 years – including asbestos.
Objectors have a number of fears, the main one being that asbestos particles could find their way into nearby Chew Valley Lake, which provides water for much of Bristol, North Somerset and North East Somerset.
They are also worried about the possibility of airborne asbestos particles affecting people’s health and an increase in the number of lorries using the area’s country roads to and from the quarry.
A Supreme Court ruling could affect thousands of compensation claims by people whose relatives died after developing an asbestos-related cancer, lawyers say.
Mesothelioma victims’ families asked the UK’s highest court to clarify the law relating to insurance claims at a hearing in London in December.
Five Supreme Court justices, who were asked to consider whether liability was “triggered” at the time of exposure to asbestos or at the onset of symptoms, will deliver judgment in London.
Relatives of workers who died from mesothelioma – after inhaling asbestos fibres during their employment – want to make claims on insurance policies covering periods from the late 1940s to the late 1990s.
Judges, headed by Supreme Court president Lord Phillips, heard appeals arising out of six separate test cases.
Specialist solicitor Helen Ashton, who works for law firm Irwin Mitchell, who is representing one of the lead claimants, said she hoped the Supreme Court could “provide clarity”.
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