The Liverpool Times

Kirkby’s man for all views now attacks Sonae.

George Howarth MP wants a full safety check on Sonae before it is allowed to reopen.

This is stout stuff from a leader of Blair’s voting fodder.

Alas, Howarth has many different views on this and many other areas of policy.

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Knowsley council Orwellian Green

It’s been 8 days since the latest 2007 fire in the Sonae factory. The production line is still at a standstill, as seen by the lack of smoke coming out of the chimney. Whilst this gives us some hope that Sonae might have blown their chances away (literally) of staying here for much longer, we still have the wind blowing wood dust over the nearby residential areas.

Until we see the factory being dismantled, no-one here will raising a toast.

We still await any real response from Knowsley council who often make noises to give us all the illusion that something is being done. After 8 years of Sonae in the area, the amount of hot air that has come from the council could literally put a hole in the ozone layer.

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First published Feb 2002

Another video and full sized photo for the jury.

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First published Jan 2003

The Sonae Factory has started the New Year by polluting the residents of Kirkby and beyond with the Black Smoke which Sonae laughably try to claim is steam.

The Sonae Factory itself remained closed for the Christmas period, this may have been due to maintenance but as reported on this Website, Sonae loses a lot of money, reportedly £10,000 an hour when the production lines are down.

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First published Dec 2002.

Saturday December 14th, another night settles on the Town of Kirkby, and the Toxic Sonae Factory is taking advantage of the cover of night to pollute the residents with all manner of nasty chemicals.

As I write this, the odour from the Factory is extremely strong, but this is becoming a more common occurrence at night-time and the early hours of the morning. The smell is often that which you might find with new chipboard products, the smell of chipboard has a smell of its own, and this is due to a variety of chemicals which are used to bond the wood dust and chips together to form the finished product. Other odour’s, more chemical like, are also smelt by residents living a couple of miles from the Toxic Sonae Factory.

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Sonae in new stupid idea.

First published Dec 2002.

Steve Gallagher, Knowsley Council Chief executive appeared on the Roger Phillips BBC Talk Show today on Dec 12th.(2002) He tried embarrassingly to defend the Sonae Factory in Kirkby which has absolutely NO support from the community here.

People were up in arms when they heard the latest crackpot plan to make the Sonae Chimney taller. As The Kirkby Times can show, the smoke is often blown downwards onto Kirkby and raising the chimneys height, even by a few hundred feet, will only mean that pollution from the chimney is dispersed further.

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The Kirkby Times campaigned since 2002 on this issue of the pollution caused by the Sonae factory situated in Kirkby. The Liverpool Times is re-publishing the Sonae material taken down after legal moves.

The Liverpool Echo ran almost a full page story on Sonae. The article hit out at Sonae and it seems that The Kirkby and now Liverpool Times message of ‘KICK THESE POLLUTING CRIMINALS OUT OF KIRKBY’ is finding a new lease of life as the councillors and even George Howarth give credibility to the idea that Sonae has to go.

God on our side.

Maybe even God Almighty has His hand in this one. After all, we began putting all the old Sonae material up, and then Sonae went on fire!

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First published Dec 2002.

The Kirkby Times can report that only days after being given a clean bill of health the Sonae Factory was responsible for massive clouds of dust blowing over Kirkby pushed by strong winds.

Unfortunately, the video evidence we have is only 2 seconds long, (that will teach you to charge up your batteries) but it is clearly enough to see the clouds of dust blowing from the factories Wood Dust Mountains.

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First published December 2002

The Sonae Factory has been given a ‘Clean Bill of Health’ according to the Liverpool Echo. The result of a pathetic ‘investigation’ and ‘probe’ by the obviously biased ‘Knowsley Primary Care Trust’ was announced in the Echo on Friday Dec 07.

Dr Diane Forrest, the Primary Care Trusts unelected director of Public health will allegedly be attending a Public meeting which is suspiciously close to Christmas. Nonetheless, it is hoped she will get a rough ride and be told to sling her hook once she has spewed forth the various pro Sonae propaganda.

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First published Nov 2002

Several local people have all contacted Kirkby Times to ask that this website publicise the fact that the smell from the Sonae Factory has been absolutely atrocious during the past few weeks.

The smell reported is described as a ‘woody chemical smell’, this is likely as not a mixture of the wood dust and the many chemicals released from Sonae. The past Month has seen an ongoing fire at the Sonae Plant which is making the matter worse. The Kirkby Times can confirm 100% the accuracy of these reports. On the 14th of Nov at 8.00am, the smell was so bad that everyone was remarking on it.

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2007 News (we’ve been republishing the old Sonae articles of late)

Since Sonae began its operations in Northwood Kirkby, residents from a wide area around have had to put up odorous emissions, and dust from the fall out from the factories giant chimney.

From 1999, Knowsley Council constantly prevaricated in the face of clear evidence that its residents were faced with pollution every bit as bad as the old pre war factories that existed in parts of Liverpool and Bootle. These contributed to the working class areas having some of the highest mortality rates from chronic and respiratory diseases.

As sure as night follows day, Sonae’s home base, Northwood, also has some of the highest mortality rates from the very same illness’s.

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Just in: Video Evidence of the Dust Mountain fires

First published Nov 2002.

The Liverpool Echo reported on the Sonae Wood Dust Mountain in its Nov 4th Edition. Under a headline of ‘Fury at Factory Fire Ash’ the Echo picks up on The Kirkby Times exclusive article and photo’s of the Fire damage which was unreported in the media.

Dozens of residents have complained and as our photos and video shows, the Wood Dust Mountain was on fire way before then.

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You just knew it was going to happen!

First published Oct 2002.

This latest fire was predicted by The Kirkby Times which has warned of the danger of these massive wood dust and waste mountains. Sonae is using Kirkby as a toxic dump.

Its possible this latest Sonae fire was one which smouldered away for a while. Much like a peat fire, these things burn deep inside.

There’s so much smoke coming out of this Toxic dump that you may well miss a small fire and mistake it for wood dust blowing in the wind. Sonae spoke of being open but we ALL know its not the reality of their relationship with the local community.

Sonae use us the way in which Union Carbide used the poor people of India. We’re all expendable in that regard.

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First published Sept 19th 2002.

As stated before on this website, the ordinary people of Kirkby are always the last to know what’s happening here in our own town. And so it is with this latest Sonae issue at hand, we simply don’t know what the hell is happening in matters which we should be kept informed about.

The Kirkby Times was first to bring you news of the Plant re opening, our recent video footage of the Chimney shows a level of pollution which was worse than before the factory exploded!

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The field near Sonae is called Windy arbour, after the lane which runs alongside it, Windy Arbour Lane.

Kirkby itself gives clues as to the green origin of the town. Like most towns, we come from an agricultural settlement, and places like Westvale, Northwood, Southdene and Towerhill (the four main areas of Kirkby) all spell out what we came from, or what the land here used to be.

Kirkby used to be a popular tourist attraction in the 18th and 19th century. A green unspoilt area was host to picnickers, boaters (on Mill pond). Whilst Liverpool was polluted with the coal fires and factories, Kirkby was a place you could escape to to get away from the pollution.

A local doctor back then might have told you to get some fresh air in Kirkby. Wise doctors always push a patient to do this. Fresh air, simple diet (butter, milk, things that kill yer today, or so they say)

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First published August 2002.

The Toxic Sonae chimney has been thankfully but mysteriously halted in its 24/7 task of polluting the nearby residents of Northwood, Kirkby and of course, anywhere else the Sonae wind blows.

The chimney seems to have stopped shortly after this website released footage of pollution at a worse level than we have seen so far. Now the Chimney seems to have stopped, why is this? Why are we always the last to know anything?

Sorry, I forgot, were just the mugs who live here.

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