The UK Labour government has committed to building 1.5m new homes within five years to address the housing shortage. The pressure is now on local authorities to fulfil targets to increase social and affordable housing, in particular, and developers are in a race to maximise the current rush to build houses.
Risks from our industrial past
Here in Northwich, over the past few years we’ve seen major housing developments such as the Kingsmead Estate and Winnington Village, together with many smaller developments, springing up. During the last century, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a major part of the industrial development of the town, and the legacy of such works as Winnington, Lostock, Wade and Wallerscote has seen many former industrial brownfield sites and numerous landfill tips, contaminated with chemicals, blighting the area. Historic landfill sites, relics from a time before stringent environmental regulations, often lack safeguards to prevent pollutants from leaching into the environment. Many of the 20,000-odd former landfill sites are safe, but some could still contain dangerous contaminants. The patchy historical records leave us in the dark about the contents buried in landfill sites.
Contamination in Mid Cheshire
Recently, programmes such as the BBC Radio 4 series ‘Buried: The last witness’ have highlighted the danger of unregistered contaminated sites that contain harmful contaminants such as the forever chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). ICI, of course, is better known for producing soda ash in the Northwich area, from which we have the legacy of the lime beds that continue to shape the physical nature of Mid Cheshire. However, what is little known is that ICI was involved with the production of paints and chemical weapons in Mid Cheshire. Wade works, in particular, was involved in the production of Thiodiglycol, a Chemical Weapons Convention Schedule 2 chemical used in the production of sulphur-based mustard gases and also paints. According to a 2004 report from ABB obtained under a freedom of information request, the chemicals associated with the production of these materials and the waste products produced continue to be a long-lasting presence in the area.
Wind forward now to the present day, and we see numerous housing developments springing up, many of them on previous brownfield sites associated with the former chemical industry. No surprise in this, you may say, but the authorities and developers have no legal duty to inform potential purchasers and tenants of the fact that the property in which they are proposing to live is actually built on previously contaminated land. Hence, many homeowners and tenants are unaware that some properties have gas resistant membranes fitted to prevent the possibility of harm from poisonous gases escaping from the ground. And in many instances, homeowners and residents are recommended not to plant vegetables or fruit trees or bushes that might draw up contaminants from the soil that might be ingested if fruit or vegetables are eaten.
The case for transparency over contaminated land
And we are not without examples of what can go wrong if contamination is not highlighted. Back in 2004/2005, two young toddlers died in Leftwich of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a rare blood cancer. They lived in neighbouring houses built on a former landfill site and died within twelve months of one another. Although no link between contamination and the children’s deaths was found, the lack of transparency over the history of the land on which their houses were built inevitably led to years of suspicion and speculation. The tragic case of Zane Gbangbola, a young boy whose death his parents allege was caused by toxic chemicals from a flooded landfill site in Surrey, also highlights the potential human cost of this hidden threat. The campaign for ‘Zane’s law’, advocating better regulation and remediation of contaminated sites, is being supported by many organisations and indeed many local authorities, including our own Cheshire West and Chester council.
If you are unsure if your property is safe, then you can start by contacting your local council’s Environmental Health Department.
