We might have rid Avonmouth of human excrement but the the mayor and the Merchant Venturer’s plan to turn Avonmouth into a hell-hole unfit for human habitation continues apace as they now attempt to visit plague upon the area!
But let’s let everyone’s favourite independent council election candidate take up the story from here (and leave you to ponder what the actual representatives for the area do apart from bank cheques from the port company …)
From: s-norman123@hotmail.co.uk
To: mayor@bristol.gov.uk;
CC: zoe.sear@bristol.gov.uk
Subject: RE: plague of flies
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014Dear George,
Once again I have to email regarding a new public health problem in Avonmouth created by your good old buddies and Merchant Venturer friends Mr D Ord and Mr T Mordant (aka the Bristol Port Company).
These being the very same people that you want to gift the freehold of the port to at a knock down price of £10 Million. It would appear that they have now begun with their master plan of polluting Avonmouth in the last 48 hours by infesting the area with flies – a carrier of bacteria & disease-causing organisms.
£10m is cheap at half the price to wipe out the human habitation in Avonmouth, Shirehampton and Lawrence Weston!
Now, let’s bring in to the equation overpaid environmental health officers who have – from the information I am currently receiving from local residents – been inundating environmental health with complaints. Moreover, it’s not just residents complaining but also a number of businesses.
The local residents are being told “Of Course We Will Come out and Fumigate Your Home”. Sounds great so far – just like someone selling you a place in paradise. But don’t be silly, we’re talking BCC here. So then comes the famous BCC catch phrase, “you will have to pay for this service”!
Can you or your officers please clarify why the residents should pay for the privilege of being infested by flies when it is a problem created by your good old buddies Mr Ord & Mr Mordant, people who are making millions from the port and causing nothing but misery to residents with their continued expansion into dangerous cargoes such as Biomass?
The infestation has been caused by biomass material stored and exported from N Shed, where in the last 36 – 48 hours a cargo has been loaded on to a ship. In view of the fact that BCC have a holding in Bristol Port Company with a Non-Executive Director could you ask your Merchant Venture Friends if they will be refunding the lease holder of the Avonmouth Tavern, Portview Road – which is closest to the facility ‘as the dust flies’ – the £120.00 she has had to pay for two fly sapping machines and any loss of trade caused by this infestation?
I am also aware that the Miles Arms Public House had to seek fumigation yesterday and, in addition, the following business has had an infestation – the Royal Hotel on Gloucester Road. I am also being informed the local Health Centre and Costco Wholesale have been infested although I am not able to confirm this at this precise moment in time.
I think it would be prudent at this stage to bring in to the equation the biomass plant approved by BCC planners that the Bristol Port Company are going to allow Helios to build at the end of the eastern arm of the port. This will be using the same material currently being exported, which is causing the problem, only on a much larger scale. 850,000 tonnes per year – that’s a lot of flies.
Furthermore, going on information received I believe the unloading and storage facility will be close to the residential area of Avonmouth on the site of the old Co-Op Flour Mill which has recently been pulled down.
George, I think it is time for you to go on a jolly to Chernobyl and get that twinning certificate.
Will you or your office please clarify what your officers are doing to get this problem under control? May I also remind you flies lay little eggs and unfortunately it is not chickens that come out of them.
In light of this serious problem and the health issues created by such an infestation, will BCC waive all charges to local residents who contact environmental health seeking assistance? Maybe the Bristol Port Company will assist with these costs to the BCC environmental health budget?
Although I expect their answer will be buy fly killer or it’s not down to us.
I look forward to your immediate response in light of the misery this is currently causing local residents and businesses. Failing a satisfactory conclusion, a number of residents have informed me that they are quite prepared to put a fly infestation in to the offices of the Bristol Port Company and City Hall. Obviously this would take a little time as they would have to breed them from scratch.
Without wishing to sound facetious you are the divine power and can make this happen.
Yours Sincerely
Mr Stephen Norman
*********STOP PRESS**********
Bristol City Council Environmental Health have CONFIRMED the infestation has been caused by BIOMASS
I am a childminder living on St Andrews rd and think this is absolutist disgusting. Why should we have to pay for fumigation when the problem wasn’t caused us and will be back because the problem hasn’t gone away?
I could go on and on about the problems it causes me and my family, not to mention the impact it could have on my business, but what’s the point. Who is going to take any notice? Do anything about it? No-one I doubt!!
Steer clear of the fly spray readers! – We had a plague of flies in our house, under the floorboards they came, thousands of them. So I lifted a board and emptied out a tin of industrial strength fly spray. That seemed to do it – for a week at least. But then came the next plague; hideous wingless mutant creatures, some of them with only four legs, crawling everywhere you looked. We had bypassed millions of years of evolution and created a new species of ‘walk’. These walks were much worse than the flies; at least you could shoosh the flies out the window. The walks got everywhere; under the bed, in the cupboards, crawling over the television. We hoovered them up as best we could for fear of creating new mutant spiders maybe the size of rats. Be warned Avonmouth.
Hiya Lesley,
I care contact me please via bristolian
It is such a shame that people did not start venting their disproval when we were trying to fight against the port and Stobart Biomass, E Jenkinson and Simms Metal, when all the dust and noise pollution started back in 2011. United together, we could have stopped this from happening. We could also have stopped HELIUS building the new biomass plant earmarked for the docks. In fact, we are still trying to fight against all the authorities and the port now. People of Avonmouth, please don’t just sit back and think ‘oh some other mug will sort this out’, it’s numbers we need to back us to be heard! Please see our Facebook forum ‘Avonmouth Dust Forum’, where you will find lots of history, information, phone numbers of who to contact ROTC etc and make that call TODAY. It’s only you that can make a difference!!
Avonmouth is the Dumping ground of Bristol. The Smelter, Bristol Chemicals, Fissons, Rodia, ICI. Carbon Black and many other Chemical companies have come Polluted the area with Lead, Sulphur and other dangerous Chemicals. We had to have siren’s installed to warn us to keep our windows closed Etc. A little like the Air Raid Siren’s in the war. They have all been and gone. Now our little village is inundated with the stench that emanates from the Sewage Works. We have more “Waste Recycling Plants” dotted around Avonmouth than is healthy. We have food waste composting plants. ( This is where the contents of all of Bristols little brown bins end up, together with all the Fly Lave) Rubbish compacting plants that serve most if not all of Bristol. And now we have to suffer Bio Mass that is going to make the Fly invasion even worse. I blame Mr Ferguson and the whole of the Bristol Council. It is they that give planning permission to allow companies like this to operate and pollute people who live in the locality. Over the years they have tried to Kill The Area with Chemical Waste, Now we have to live like people in third world Contries, with the stench of Raw Sewage. Blankets of dust covering the area. Explosions rattling the windows and then inundated with plagues of flies. We all pay council taxes in and around Avonmouth the same as the rest of the Bristol Area. WHAT DO WE GET BACK FOR THAT MONEY . I firmly believe it is about time the People of Avonmouth took Bristol City Council to task and asked why so many waste, Recycling and Bio Mass companies have been allowed to set up so close to habitation and what is being done by those companies to control effluent and contamination of the local area
On Mr Fergusons sale of Bristol Port…….. Just a Thought………..I Wonder what the value of the land is as industrial development land???????? I believe it is not only Bristol Port that is up for sale but also Portbury Dock. If you were to Buy the equivalent amount of land to set up a port…… How much would it cost???? The Port Company are rightly developing the land so it makes them a good profit but this also increases traffic servicing this growth. Plus With all the development that is happening in the area. All the new warehouses and distribution centres. What is being done about all the increased heavy haulage as far as roads and increased air pollution from exhausts.
It is noted that although we have signs saying we have “Uneven” road surfaces as a result of heavy traffic and weather Etc. Nothing seems to be being done to fix the problem.
I could carry on about all the things wrong with Avonmouth. The Biggest Plus for Avonmouth is the people that live here. We are a small village that has been overtaken by industry but we are also a thriving community who care for each other, We have comparatively little crime and our children can play without being supervised all the time. We do have a lot to be grateful for because we do try and pull together. It is the people of Avonmouth that make it a GOOD PLACE to live.
It seems the Local Council don’t want us to be happy together. If you don’t want to live in a third world village polluted by Stench, Dust, Explosions, Flies and everything else they can throw at us,,,,,, then complain to the Environment Agency. Bristol City Council. George Ferguson, Your local member of Parliament (Lying Brigade) and the Local Councillors who are “Supposed” to have your best interests at heart. (If they have one)
Bristol City Council is profiting from the increased Revenue from the increased development in the Area???????? Why don’t the spend some of it trying to make the people of Avonmouth’s Life a little Better???????
All this information should be made available, now I know why my house is infested with flys, that spray will not kill!!
Furthermore, I never new about an infestation in 2011, when my son suddenly started getting bitten by something which appeared to look like mosquito’s. . makes me wonder.. I thought it was something to do with the area, because we had been here years before and never an issue until around 2011!
Anyone know what other chemicals these flying creatures are exposed to?
Thanks in advance.. this is worrying..