Well done, The Argus, for your recent front page article on the dangers posed by waste incinerators (May 24).

I can back up your statements from personal experience. I used to live and work in Enfield. I had to attend a chest clinic and constantly use sprays, inhalers and medication. At times, I even had to use an oxygen cylinder to obtain some relief from the pollution which was forever present.

It was only by chance that I came to live in Sussex, stopping overnight in Seaford as I could not drive further due to a severe asthma and migraine attack. I called into Seaford police station to enquire if there was somewhere I could stay for the night - and noted one of the addresses was a nursing home.

This was back in 1976. I had been advised by my GP and consultant to get away from Enfield. Since living here, my health has improved.

I am now 85 years old but do not look it. I had to take a drop in salary but at least I was alive.

I have protested at meetings about the proposed Newhaven incinerator and have stood collecting signatures for petitions against it.

If the powers-that-be are so sure of the safety of these waste facilities, why do they not go to stay at sites where the incinerators are located and experience the lack of good air?

There is already so much talk of emissions into the atmosphere of greenhouse gases and so forth. Why create yet more?

My son and his two children used to live in Enfield as well. Thankfully, when they saw how much better my health had become, they also decided to move away.

To keep the plant going, water is going to be required. We don't have much of that locally, so it will probably have to be brought by lorry. The roads in Newhaven have difficulty coping with today's traffic, let alone heavy-duty lorries.

We locals need to do more than just hand in written protests - the kid glove treatment is no match for Whitehall bullies. We fought the bullies from 1939-45.

  • Mai Ashton, Freeland Close, Bishopstone