Records of the Stoney Mountain Opposition Group (SMOG)

The deposit contains agendas and minutes of SMOG meetings, the constitution of SMOG, print off of speeches, information sheets, general correspondence and legal correspondence. Audio cassette tapes of meetings, talks and a mandate, petition of signatures and SMOG press and publicity documents. Further material includes papers relating to a visit and talk by the environmental campaigner and botanist Professor David Bellamy (b.1933) and SMOG mailing lists.

Records also consist of Isle of Man Government reports, Department of Local Government and Environment reports, draft planning schemes, Isle of Man environmental statements statement (by consulting environmental scientists, landscape architects, engineers & planners) for the proposed waste treatment facility at Stoney Mountain and material relating to planning permission for a property in Malew, Isle of Man.

Further material includes papers relating to waste disposal systems such as Environmental Closed Loop Incineration Process (ECLIPS) and South East London Combined Heat and Power Limited (SELCHP), different forms of waste strategies, papers relating to the health impacts of incineration and material relating to alternative waste disposal and energy renewal method of the Danish and Dutch governments.

Printed and ephemera materials include newspaper cuttings, environmental and waste information magazines, waste and pollution pamphlets and SMOG badges and stickers.

The Stoney Mountain Opposition Group (SMOG) was a group formed to resist the Isle of Man Government’s (the Department of Local Government and Environment) proposal of developing a £21 million waste incinerator and landfill site at Stoney Mountain, Malew, Isle of Man. The creation of SMOG was the result of a proposition at a Public Meeting held on Thursday 21 December 1995 in the rural village of Foxdale. The objective of SMOG was to oppose the siting of the incinerator and the associated landfill site at Stoney Mountain on the grounds (amongst others) that it was an entirely inappropriate site and would be detrimental to the people of Foxdale and the surrounding areas. The management of SMOG was controlled by an elected committee which consisted of a chairman, treasurer, secretary, media spokesperson and between four to ten ordinary committee members. SMOG actively protested the government’s plans and conducted activities such as making posters and stickers, holding frequent meetings, attending meetings with the Manx parliament Tynwald, inviting speakers to the Island and using the press and media to transmit their message of opposition. After significant public pressure, in 1997 and after significant public pressure, the Isle of Man Government withdrew its proposal of an incinerator at Stoney Mountain. Having achieved their objective SMOG relinquished activities and disbanded as a group.

The mailing list item will be subject to data protection.

Advance notification of a research visit is advisable by emailing library@mnh.gov.im

The biographical information was gathered from Manx newspapers situated in the deposit.

Fonds-level description created by Eleanor Williams (MNH Project Archivist), October 2015.