Covid-19 and Air Pollution

July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 / hedonpress / Leave a comment

Studies from Harvard University and the University of Siena have both found that death rates from Covid-19 are higher in areas of greater air pollution. Recent advice from UK Government experts agrees with these studies.

This shouldn’t be surprising, because Covid-19 attacks the lungs. Air pollution has already been linked to increased rates of asthma and lung cancer, and the compromising of the immune system. Additionally, Covid-19 is not the only type of Coronavirus to be worsened by air pollution. It was also linked to higher death rates during the 2003 Sars epidemic.

It is inevitable that the YEP development will increase air pollution, as a result of increased traffic and the gas processing for energy. The current crisis will likely be solved within the next year, but what about the next Coronavirus-type pandemic? Another is inevitable and, when it happens, do we really want to be living in a world where the dirty air we breathe exacerbates the problem?

For more on an interesting and frightening result of high traffic levels see this post – Plastic in Our Lungs – The Hidden Impact of Traffic.

PETITION

A Cow on Hedon Aerodrome

Sources

Environmental Health Journal

The Truth About Increasing Footfall to Hedon

July 4, 2020July 5, 2020 / hedonpress / Leave a comment

Hedon is a reasonably successful independent town.

In past centuries productivity has gone up and down but, for at least the last 50 years, Hedon has been self-sustaining, even when less people lived in Hedon itself.

Recently, the footfall has been damaged by the loss of a bank (the decision of HSBC, a multi-billion-pound company, which wants increase profits by getting rid of employees and doing everything online), and the post office. Both of these issues have contributed to our decreasing Wednesday Market, which has even further reduced the footfall. A new post office is now open in Bargain Booze on St Augustine’s Gate. This, more than any development, will help to recover the footfall into Hedon.

For more analysis read this post – The Truth about Food at the YEP

Of course, at the moment, it’s very difficult to analyse footfall because most people are still keeping shopping to a minimum due to Covid-19.

PETITION

This is the Man who Approved the YEP

July 4, 2020July 4, 2020 / hedonpress / 1 Comment

The Secretary of State who gave the ‘final’ approval for the YEP, Robert Jenrick, has been in trouble multiple times for poor behaviour recently, including calls to resign over accusations of corruption. He has been responsible for approving other developments not wanted by local people, and ignored concerns about conservation areas and Covid-19 restrictions.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, when travelling to second homes was prohibited, Jenrick travelled 130 miles to his £1.1 million Grade I listed manor in Herefordshire. His defence was that this was his primary home, a claim which a neighbour described as ‘codswollop’. His website claims he lives in Southwell near Newark and in his £2.5 million flat in London, which has raised recent questions about £100,000 in expenses for rent and travelling.

In June, a Conservative councillor approved an extension on one of Jenrick’s properties, despite two previous applications being turned down, because the house is in a conservation area and his extension would ruin the aesthetics of the area.

Also in June, Jenrick approved a 17 storey building in Notting Hill, London. According to Johnny Thalassites (lead councillor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea), this is a ‘major blow to local residents’ because it would harm the uniqueness of the borough, and its listed buildings and conservation area. The application had previously been rejected by local councillors in 2018.

This month the Commons Housing Select Committee wrote to Jenrick with a list of 26 unanswered questions, and a demand to appear before them later this month. This is regarding the ‘unlawful’ approval of a Tory donor’s London housing project in January, after permission was refused by both the local council and The Independent Planning Inspectorate because it had lacked affordable housing and conflicted with local conservation policy. It was also approved one day before a community levy came into force which could cost the developer between £30 million and £50 million, and would have helped to mitigate the impact of the development on the local area. The developer was later revealed to have sat next to Jenrick during a Conservative fundraising dinner two months previously, and texts between the two men have also proved incriminating. Jenrick has now reversed his decision, but it’s too little too late. His actions have already proven a lack of reliability on his morality and many have called for his resignation, but the PM has said he considers the matter closed.

Given his record, he was never likely to turn down the YEP.

Please sign this petition – the moment we give up is the moment they truly win.