Toxic Sonae : Poisoning Kirkby, Lets Kick them Out!

Welcome to the Kirkby Times Sonae News Section. All News Items are situated on the left hand margin opposite under 'Sonae News Items' And situated in an easy to find section here. More items will be added as news comes in. Please send in any items regarding Sonae, especially if you have inside info. The Sonae Wood processing factory got built despite 99.9% of us here opposing it. The rates of lung related disease here are already sky high but still our local Labour Council felt it beneficial to further poison us by adding to the chemical cocktail of pollution coming from the nearby Industrial estate.

The above picture shows the close proximity of the Sonae Factory to the residential area of Northwood, Kirkby. The nearest Houses are really in the direct wind path of the Factories many fumes which are released into the atmosphere. The Chimney can be seen for miles around on a clear day and there are often 'blackouts' where the so called 'steam' seems to go a dark grey almost black.What is worrying is that the fumes released by Sonae simply add to an already dangerous cocktail of chemical emmisions. The combined effect of all these chemicals must be contributing to the high levels of lung related disease here.

Council Website in misrepresentation of the truth?

The photo below of Sonae is on Knowsley Councils web site, but look close, where has the Chimney gone?



Our Photo of Sonae below seems to show a Chimney, in fact you can see the Sonae chimney for miles and miles. Are the Council lying here?



Can you see the Sonae Chimney?, did the Council use an old photo of the Factory before the Big Chimney so they can spin doctor the situation. Did they use computer software to actually brush out the chimney?. We studied the original picture(you can right click and save it and study it in several graphics programs) and despite the poor quality of that picture(it would never have made it on this web) we magnified it up and cannot be sure whether or not the Chimneys been brushed out. It looks quite possible as the straight edge of the roof appears to be missing directly below the chimney. As you can see by our Sonae Gallery, there is a massive Chimney which can be seen for miles around.

Laugh at our disappearing Sonae Chimney below. Now you see it, now you don't! This shows how easy it is to manipulate photographs and we done it in a minute! If only it was so easy to actually make the Sonae Factory disappear!

Toxic Sonae The Toxic Facts.......

Sonae is a Portuguese Company and is involved in the production of a number of wood based products mainly chipboard based. The plant in Knowsley was planned in secret with negotiations between the Company and Knowsley Council. The Factory opened up for production here in January 2000. The first many of us knew about the plant was when the land had been sold off. The siting of the Factory, next to Northwoods last remaining green area, was a kick in the teeth to a Community already subject to a rate of lung cancer and respitorary diseases way above the national average.

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Sonae's activities will be highlighted and detailed when we get info from various environmental groups but it is strongly rumored that the Sonae Plant built here had already had planning permission rejected by several Countries. Certainly it would seem the Company has a questionable record over the years in environmental issues and we feel that that the true story of Sonae is far from the glossy propaganda and spin featutured on the Sonae web site. How can a Company who have plundered Forests to give us chipboard have the cheek to actually feature a picture of a Rain Forest on their web site. Check out the hypocrisy here!

Sonae are involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the following products. They also have extensive involvement in their own brand food items, tele-communications and even computer games.More info will be posted as an assortment of articles relating to their actvities are posted up here.

Particle Board

MDF(Medium Density Fiberboard)

Hardboard

OSD(Oriented Strand Board)

Plywood

Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde based resins

High Pressure laminates

We have a campaign group "Knowsley Against Toxic Sonae", we will feature what they have to say and if anyone has material suitable for publishing here then please contact us here!, and the Toxic Sonae section of Kirkby Times can grow as people send in material. This web site needs your input so please send in your views.

So far it has to be said Kirkby has not even begun to really fight this factory. This is our home. The people who made the decision to give Sonae planning permission do not live here. This is not local democracy, it is a dictatorship where the few ride roughshod over the many.

The people of Kirkby have been treated, once again like second class Citizens.We have been badly represented by the Local Council who simply see politics as a ride on the gravy train. We have got to put local people first and Knowsley Council seems intent on ignoring local opinion and bulldozing through there own madcap plans. Make no mistake, the Councils motives for bringing Sonae here are purely financial. A select few share the rewards.

The Council and Sonae are gambling with our health because they not enough of us are standing up to them. Its up to us. We either fight back or get walked all over.Our kids deserve more than this. Its about time Kirkby got radical again, we've taken this crap for far too long.

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This website is updated as and when news of Sonae comes in. A lot of the stories here have been released before the local media.