Created by Jessica Goldfinch (Co-chair) with words by Elizabeth Mansfield (Co-chair).
[Photo credit: unknown. Photo words: Jessica Goldfinch]
Green Party Women are proud to support the Truth About Zane Campaign and the Campaign for Zane’s Law. You can visit our webpage about the campaigns here: https://women.greenparty.org.uk/2024/05/23/the-truth-about-zane/
We have some exciting news to share from our co-chair, Elizabeth Mansfield, who is the co-ordinator of the Zane’s Law Campaign and has been helping Nicole and Kye (Zane’s Mummy and Daddy) to organise the Summit.
The Zane’s Law Summit on Contaminated Land and Water was held on Wednesday 11 June at the Houses of Parliament.
Campaigners, politicians, trade unions and legal representatives came together with a single purpose: to place the ticking time bomb of contaminated land and water centre-stage and address the urgent task of drawing up legislation to make UK environmental protections fit for purpose.
Campaigners from more than 20 communities experiencing severe and sometimes fatal harms from toxic landfill and contaminated water spoke at the Summit. Other speakers included Des Collins, the solicitor who represented families affected by the toxic waste scandal in Corby, dramatised in the recent Netflix series Toxic Town.
‘Zane’s Law’ would improve transparency around historic landfill sites and clarify who is responsible for making these safe.
It is named after seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola, who died on 8 February 2014 when floodwater passed through landfill into the basement of his home in Chertsey. His father, Kye Gbangbola, was left paralysed by the same incident.
Surrey Fire and Rescue Services detected high levels of hydrogen cyanide in Zane’s home. And yet, to this day, the landfill has not been properly tested, despite the discovery of a 2010 report warning of an “unacceptable risk” of“migrating landfill gasses” from the site causing “significant harm, serious injury and capable of causing death”.
Baroness Natalie Bennett, who chaired the hybrid meeting, said: “Current UK regulations on contaminated land are grossly inadequate and a threat to the safety of many, especially given climate breakdown, rising sea levels, increased rainfall, and flooding. Zane’s Law proposes measures to address this crisis. The need to act was acknowledged in the 1990 Environment Protection Act, but then the protective provisions were removed after lobbying of the Conservative government by mass house builders. I hope, but sadly don’t expect, that Sir Keir Starmer’s government would step up to one of its primary responsibilities, to protect life.”
The call for a Zane’s Law was launched by Zane’s parents, Kye and Nicole Gbangbola, at COP26 in 2021, together with Baroness Bennett, at a Peace and Justice event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn.
It has the support of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), the TUC, Unison, Unite, the National Education Union, teachers’ union NASUWT and communications union CWU. Several local authorities, including the London Assembly, havepassed motions calling for Zane’s Law.
Steve Wright, Fire Brigades Union general secretary said: “Contamination from unregulated, historic landfill poses a serious threat to the environment, health and lives. With the climate emergencyresulting in increasing floods, which threaten to spread this contamination, the government cannot ignore the rising risk.
Everyone should have the right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Firefighters, who are on the frontline of flooding incidents, stand with the communities who have been tragically impacted and with the continued call for justice for Zane.
The UK government must bring in Zane’s Law to save lives by properly regulating contaminated land and water.”
Many elected politicians and parliamentarians have expressed their support for Zane’s parents in their long campaign for the truth about what happened to their son, including Andy Burnham, Mayor of Manchester, and Environment Secretary Steve Reed MP.
On the day of the Summit, Zane’s parents, Kye and Nicole Gbangbola, said: “Today we’ll hear the brave voices of people who are struggling to get protection from the horrific impacts of living in proximity to toxic landfilland poisoned water – and hear them at the heart of government. Britain should be leading the way in environmental law. Instead, our legislation is woefully inadequate. We need Zane’s Law now!”
Green Party Women was glad to hear that this vital Summit was such a success! The fight continues.
https://zaneslaw.co.uk/