Today, the 21st October, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, are pledging their support for Zane's Law, named in remembrance of a child - Zane Gbangbola.
If little Zane had lived, today would have been his 19th birthday, but tragically he died, aged 7 years old, when flood water passed through contaminated landfill into the basement of his Chertsey home, during the terrible flooding of 2014.
Zane's death was both tragic and preventable.
For two decades, Mayor Andy Burnham has led the fight of the Hillsborough families for a Hillsborough Law - the Public Office (Accountability) Bill - which is currently making its way through parliament: Legislative reform to “impose a duty on public authorities and public officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness” and to “to create an offence in relation to public authorities and public officials who mislead the public”. And Mayor Steve Rotheram has represented and supported the Hillsborough families in their tireless fight for the same.
Duty of candour will also be bound into Zane’s Law, detailing the necessary measures required for local authorities to be both obligated and fully supported to deal with the ticking time bomb of contaminated land and related waters, following the polluter pays principle, and in line with the United Nations’ call for the ‘human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment’.
The Manchester and Liverpool Mayors’ call of support joins with that of London Mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, the London Assembly, and eight local authorities who have all passed resolutions of support; Lewes District Council being the first, followed by Adur, Brighton and Hove City Council, Stroud, Rother, Runnymede, Cheshire West & Chester and Newham. Today, on Zane’s birthday, the Zane's Law Campaign is inviting every elected councillor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to do the same.
The UK Landfills Campaign, which has grown out of the campaign for Zane's Law, currently represents over 30 different local campaigns, fighting for action in their areas, where contaminated land is causing harm to people and the environment. On Wednesday 11 June they gathered at the Houses of Parliament, together with politicians, trade unions and legal representatives for an inaugural 'Zane's Law Summit'. Work on drafting Zane’s Law is now underway.
Baroness Natalie Bennett is committed to introducing Zane's Law - the Clean Land (Human Rights) Bill into the next Parliament as a Private Members Bill, supported by the TUC, the CWU, Unite, NEU, Unison and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), among others. It was FBU frontline firefighters who discovered hydrogen cyanide present at high levels in Zane's home on the night he died; hydrogen cyanide that left Zane's Daddy, Kye, paralysed from the same incident and that he, Nicole (Zane's Mummy) and their thousands of supporters, including the FBU, believe killed Zane
Remembering Zane on his birthday, in this eleventh agonising year since his death, his parents Kye and Nicole said:
“When the state withholds the truth of a child's death, there is more than 'justice delayed is justice denied' going on!
Withheld justice eviscerates and silences victims beyond the horrific act that took their loved one’s life. Withheld justice removes the power to challenge, to speak freely, and to act on information. It halts lives, destroys relationships, careers, homes, health, wellbeing, trust, and any chance to grieve in truth.
Zane will forever be our precious seven-year-old boy, who we miss every moment of the day. But we Pray for a legacy of truth, and that protection for others will come.”
https://www.truthaboutzane.com/uploads/b/7501978-231746902277101142/zane_in_memory_163.mp4
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