Green light for homes on ‘England’s most contaminated site’

At an Amber Valley Council meeting, councillors approved plans from David Ashley Construction for 250 homes on the Amber Valley Rugby Club site, off the B600 in Somercotes.

During the debate, the meeting had to be temporarily adjourned after a heated shouting match broke out between councillors and a concerned resident.

Coun Jason Parker, a member of Somercotes Parish Council and lifelong resident of the village, had yelled: “How can you go ahead with this application when it is filled with thousands and thousands of tonnes of toxic waste?”

Coun Jack Brown then called for the meeting to go into private session, at which point Coun Jane Orton, planning committee chairman, announced a five-minute adjournment.

Coun John McCabe, who represents Somercotes on the borough council, read out a formal complaint filed by the parish council.

He read that there is evidence of toxic chemicals migrating from north to south from the historic LS01 landfill into the rugby club site, which was also a waste dump known as LS41.

The complaint refers to the LS01 landfill site as “one of the most toxically contaminated historical hazardous waste landfills in the country”.

It alleges the site is contaminated with the “illegal dumping of toxic waste including highly toxic dioxin, which has been proven to be in the sub-soils across the LS41 landfill”.

Coun McCabe then said “This is the most contaminated site in England. We are putting people’s health and wellbeing at risk. Which one out of you (planning board members) will buy the first house on this site?

“We should be thinking about our children’s and grandchildren’s wellbeing.”

Diana Dixon, a Somercotes resident, told the meeting: “Everybody in this room knows this site is contaminated.

“It is toxic. Would all of you voting here today move your family onto this site and buy a house on a toxic dump? If you don’t have the courage of your convictions to do that, then don’t subject us to it.”

Helen Marks, agent for the applicant, told the meeting there was no evidence of contamination identified which should stop development.

Rae Gee, a council planning officer, said the development would pave the way for a replacement rugby facility off Slack Lane, Riddings, which would have three pitches and floodlights and would represent a wholesale upgrade.

Ms Gee said while the developer cannot afford to build affordable homes on the site and provide money to support health services, due to the cost of remediation and investigations, they would still be providing £1.4 million to support schools and roads in the area.

She said the council’s scientific officer was satisfied with the information provided and “based on the evidence to date, it is unlikely further investigations will identify the need for extensive remediation that would impact on the viability of the development”.

Officials wrote in a council report for the meeting: “Further investigations are needed to confirm conditions across the site, but based on the results to date, it is highly unlikely there will be a contaminant linkage, whereby volatile organic chemicals (harmful natural substances) represent a human health risk.”

Coun Ron Ashton, committee vice-chairman, said: “There has been substantial investigation into this. Is Amber Valley Council happy with the review of the contamination? Are we satisfied with the amount we know about the contamination?”

Ms Gee said said there had been no evidence of any dioxin or radioactive substances on the site, or “the really nasty stuff”.

“When you don’t want to build on greenfield sites, these are the sites that you would need to be looking at, it ticks all the boxes,” she said.

Councillors voted nine votes to three in favour of the 250-home plans.

After the meeting, Coun Parker said the LS01 waste dump is the “most toxic tip in the UK”.

He said: “We have got an extremely deadly chemical in our community and where is the duty of care from the council to monitor it?”

He claimed there were days when people walking their dogs on the site would find that their canine companions could not bear to put their feet on the floor – he says this is due to the chemicals.

“They don’t understand the danger”, he said, “it ought to be left alone”.

He said he had witnessed lorry-loads of dead cows being dumped into the pit in 1979 and had spoken to people who witnessed barrels of chemicals being dumped into the historic waste tip.

Cllr Parker said: “They say there is no evidence, but I have seen them being dumped into the pit. Of course there is no evidence, because it was illegal, it was done in the dead of night.

“People believe the dome on the landfill is getting bigger. It is a time bomb and it could explode overnight. It is scandalous.”

The Environment Agency said when it investigated the site it found “low-to-trace concentrations” of a range of toxic substances in the limited investigations carried out so far.

There is little documented about the former waste tips LS01 and LS41 due to lax historic legislation over the handling of hazardous substances, with the council openly confirming there are many years in which nothing is known about what was deposited in the dumps, particularly LS01.

Eyewitnesses have previously told the LDRS about lorries frequently dumping substances into the tip of Norman Road, above the rugby club, at night-time.

Councillors have pointed out materials were dumped into the pit before any modern forms of containment and with no ground gas being effectively vented to avoid hazardous build-ups.