Malmesbury Town Council resolved at its meeting on the 18th June 2024 to support Lord Foster’s campaign.
Please see the original email below from Mr Ron Bailey, researcher for the campaign to improve safety of lithium batteries.
Dear Local Council
I am writing to ask your Council to support our campaign to improve the safety of lithium batteries (used in e-bike and e-scooters) and their disposal.
Let me begin by introducing myself. I am the researcher for Lord (Don) Foster (hence my email address), who has been campaigning on this issue in the House of Lords. I am also the parliamentary advisor to Electrical Safety First, a UK Charity dedicated to reducing the deaths and injuries caused by electricity.
As you will probably know lithium battery fires are on the increase – there have been over 1000 in the past few years, nearly 200 injuries and a dozen fatalities. Homes have been destroyed. The cost to the UK runs into £billions. You will doubtless know of examples in your area. I attach a spreadsheet of some recent fires – as you will see there have been some in your area.
Lord Foster and Electrical Safety First are promoting the attached Bill (a summary of which is included at the end of this email) to ensure greater safety in the use and disposal of lithium batteries and are aiming to get it into law as soon as possible. It has its First Reading on 5th June.
We have the support of many national organisations, as the attached logos show – including the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Royal Society for Public Health. In addition 2 coroners have called for the law to be tightened to ensure greater safety.
We are now contacting more locally based organisations, and it would be great if your Council was able to support this campaign. It would be a great boost.
