A very good question, and one we’re often asked by people who have seen the plans and the lovely artists impressions of the plant that TATA want to build on the edge of town.  After all, on the plans and the artist impressions you could be forgiven for thinking that they would hardly be noticeable.

In an attempt to give some scale and perspective to this answer CHAIN have created the first mobile chimney in the UK and let this chimney fly.  Sounds crazy?  Maybe but we needed a way of showing everyone just how high the proposed structure would be.

So with a merry band of volunteers and a fair wind (and lovely sunny weather!) we set off last week to fly our tethered balloon from as near to the proposed site as we could.  The results you can see for yourself on this page.  The balloon flew really well and was visible from miles around; so much so that we attracted enquiries from a long way out of Northwich as well as in the town itself.

The balloon is tethered with a cable which is exactly the same length as the proposed chimney would be high, so we can see with a degree of accuracy exactly what could be seen from different locations around the town.  Take note particularly of the one’s from the car dealers on London Road, the Tesco’s car park and the one from Northwich Vics. Clearly this is a lot higher than most people perceive it to be and despite the best reassurances from TATA a lot higher than any artist impression has ever truly shown.

The blimp will be flying again soon so watch out for it where you are and if you spot it or take a photo then don’t forget to let us know and send us your pictures!

Chimney Height from Northwich Vics Car Park

Chimney height from London Road

The Blimp

Up she goes!

Flying high!

Looking East from Tesco's car park

About five years ago we set up a PO box as a convenient way to let people get in touch with us and more importantly to allow a simple way of returning the petition forms to us. This worked really well and although it cost us around £50 a year to provide the PO box we felt this was an investment worth making. Each year this cost has been paid for by one of our members as a contribution as we don’t have unlimited funds and rely on donations to do the work we do.  Naturally we have been vary grateful for your support in this area.

For the first three years the price remained around the £50 mark with slight increases year on year, but last year it shot up from £56 in 09/10 to £95 in 10/11. We thought long and hard before renewing but felt that it served everybody better if we spent the money. Once again this fee was paid by the kind contribution from a supporter.

This years renewal has now fallen onto the doormat and we are sad to tell you that we will not be able to renew this essential service. For some reason best known to themselves Royal Mail have seen fit to raise the cost of this service to £170 a year.  This is for the staff  putting all our mail in a box at the sorting office, from which we have to go and collect it.

Despite phone calls to their customer service, Royal Mail have simply been unable to provide any justification for this 300% rise in just two years, and as such we have told them  that we will refuse to pay this fee.  They have lost another customer and we await with interest any response from them to our complaint which we have lodged.  Ironically if they do choose to write to us about the complaint, by the time they do the PO box will have been ceased so we’re not sure how they will deliver the letter!

In the meantime should you wish to get in touch with us please feel free to phone us on 0845 956 9696 or email us by clicking here.

There are currently proposals from several commercial organisations to build incinerators for burning waste in Cheshire. CHAIN is a group of volunteers who are committed to preventing these plans from going ahead as we believe they will have dire environmental and economic consequences as well as posing considerable health risks to residents in Cheshire.

We owe it to future generations to object to these plans and fight for a better environment.