Asbestos dangers of school closures highlighted by parent

The largest asbestos disposal site in Europe is situated in the Glasgow North East constituency at the Red Road Flats. Young children who have had their primary schools closed as part of Glasgow City Council's cuts are having to make their way along this hazardous route in Broomfield Rd to their new school. On the other side of the road there is another site riddled with chemicals. So they have 3 choices: walking on the side with asbestos, walking on the side with chemicals or walking in the middle of the road and risking being knocked down by a vehicle. Not much choice, is there? Glasgow North East has long suffered deprivation, unemployment, poverty and ill-health. The life expectancy in the area is one of the lowest in Britain. Cutting public services is only adding to the unemployment and poverty and ultimately poor health. The last thing kids need is to be walking by chemicals and asbestos sites. Apart from the obvious disruption to education by closing local schools and sending young kids to further away schools with larger class sizes, many parents from different areas in Glasgow have complained about the road safety issue for their kids en route to their new schools But in the north-east it's even worse because of the risk of contamination. SSP's Richie Venton and others have campaigned long and hard with the parents against the closures. Demonstrations, rooftop protests and occupations of buildings, lobbies of the Scottish parliament, legal challenges have been carried out. Their efforts managed to save two nurseries and a primary but unfortunately the council still went ahead with most of the closures. In this video one of the Save Our Schools campaigners Susan speaks of the asbestos danger at a rally in front of the Glasgow City Council building.

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