A rally against the landfill took place in Gatchyna

In the Leningrad region, residents of Gatchina held a coordinated rally against the landfill on Sunday. People came to the rally, despite the recommendations of local officials not to do it, reports Sever.Realii. Already after the meeting was approved, a ban on holding mass events was introduced in the region.

On February 8, the administration allowed the initiative group to hold a rally with the number of up to 150 people, but offered the activists to independently organize security for the event. Later, the court found this requirement illegal. Activists that officials “recommended to make a decision to cancel the public event.” In the region until May 1 there is a ban on street mass actions, allegedly due to the threat of terrorist actions and other provocations. The restriction, however, came into force after the approval of the activists’ application for the rally, so it finally took place.

The organizers asked the participants to refrain from political slogans and the use of posters calling for the resignation of officials. The main demand of the meeting: to carry out an independent inventory of landfill loading and to change territorial waste management schemes.

At the end of the meeting, the organizers read the resolution and asked to sign it. The text states that the signatories are asking to close the “Novy Svet” landfill, organize and conduct an independent inventory of landfill loading, redistribute waste streams from St. Petersburg to other landfills, and cancel the “Novy Svet ECO” license.

– When the wind from the training ground blows into our garden, people start having attacks of suffocation, coughing, headaches, and nosebleeds. Both adults and children – says Gatchyna resident Halyna, she believes that after the rally, the authorities will take action to close the landfill.

• The landfill is located a few kilometers from Gatchyna. This mountain is 150 meters high. Waste is brought to the landfill not only from Gatchyna itself, but also from St. Petersburg. As early as 2022, Sever.Realii wrote about how residents of Gatchina live next to the landfill. At that time, the solid waste dump had been poisoning their lives for several years.