What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

We are now three weeks into a supposed consultation regarding The Dudley Port Supplementary planning document that in part seeks to think it is a good idea to build more houses right next to a hazardous waste area that is emitting toxic gas.

But rather than consult the residents of The Temple Way Estate, Sandwell council are instead hiding it in a tent in Victoria park Tipton next week- well over a mile away from where any of the action will take place, and “the misery”.

You can see what the birds think of it!

Well that just won’t do!

We want to see this area left to nature and kept green, not foundry sand black. We want to see the nature reserve at Sheepwash thrive and not become further threatened and marginalised by inappropriate development- and water contamination through industrial sources.

PLEASE OBJECT TO SMBC’S PROPOSALS BY CONTACTING

ldf_planning@sandwell.gov.uk

COME AND JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN AT OUR CONSULTATION EVENT TO STOP THE GARDEN CITY AND PROTECT SHEEPWASH LOCAL NATURE RESERVE AND THE SURROUNDING AREA FOR WILDLIFE AND FOR PEOPLE.

Tipton Road Methodist Church 
Saturday 22nd July between 11am -3pm

#SAVEDUDLEYPORT- STOPTHEGARDENCITY

The peace and tranquillity of Temple Way……

It all started with a big hole in the ground, left there by a brick maker and subsequently taken over by tatters, scavengers and fly tippers. Then came the foundry sand dumpers, hundreds of tonnes of it. Throw in multiple planning applications and waste disposal licences under the guise of “different” companies with the same individuals running them, time extensions when those planning permissions were not met and protracted arguments between The Environment agency and their solicitors over gas barriers and Christmas trees! But visibly the noise, the stress, the damage to households from black foundry sand and the over tipping  to leave a massive pile of black slag sitting astride a buried pit of toxic and hazardous gassing venom. JUST WHAT HAPPENED AT TEMPLE WAY TO CAUSE THIS “MISERY?”

It all started with big plans. The newly formed Black Country Development Corporation were eager to create a flagship house building project, but somewhere along the way of the Temple it all went pear shaped and became a third white elephant.

The Temple at the Way

The letter below is from where this blog post was taken and it is a letter written by a resident of Temple Way in 1990 on behalf of The Temple Way Action Group, when the BCDC had approved the first in a long line of applications surrounding this site, a letter that was to prove so prophetically accurate that I cannot better it in explanation as to why it remains so relevant today which is why I am printing it in full below.

“In granting this application BCDC are going to subject the residents of the adjoining housing estate to a high level of distress for the next several years.”

• The letter confirms that a so called “public exhibition” took place involving “glossy BCDC propaganda”.
• BCDC and Mintworth appeared to have differing opinions on how the scheme would pan out
• Sandwell council had apparently rejected the scheme the month earlier, yet BCDC had approved it “behind closed doors”
• The letter confirms what existing Sandwell council officers knew to be true about the site’s disastrous past management under “Duport Properties Ltd.”

• “What it will mean to residents in real terms

• On site plant operating 11 hours per day six days per week for two years, and that will just be the first part of this programme

• At least 100 heavy vehicles per day , transporting this untreated waste from site , greatly increasing the traffic problem in an already congested area.

• Excavation of this waste within 25 yards of private dwellings

• A potential health hazard that cannot be fully estimated to any degree of satisfaction. Not just the direct effects of pollutants released into the atmosphere but also by the high levels of stress that can be induced by the effects of the continual noise emissions from the site. “

• The value of properties will be affected , especially those that face directly onto the site, that is if they will still be saleable commodity once work commences.
• All the wildlife that this site plays host to will be eradicated. The Urban wildlife group have declared that this tract of land an important “stepping stone” for the sheepwash development. There is an abundance of birdlife here, both resident and migratory , with species uncommon to the area.”
• “It seems that Oldbury and the surrounding areas are being “developed” to saturation level, with every piece of available land up for grabs and being exploited to its maximum profitability. “

The waste in fact was not moved off site and below is a basic outline of what happened next -starting with the application referred to in the letter above, which was supposedly going to take just a couple of years to achieve. More detail in several posts and pages about this to follow- because it becomes very convoluted! 🙄

BCS 905 granted March 1990 for land reclamation and drainage works, including off site relocation of fills and importation of substitute materials. (condition 2 reads “The operations shall not be discontinued on or before 28/2/92.”

BCS 1804 granted April 1992, variation of condition 2 of BCS 905 extending operations -condition 2 now expires 28th February 1995

BCS 1813 granted July 1992, reclamation of sewage works and Duport’s Tip and importation of fill

DECEMBER 1992 WASTE DISPOSAL LICENCE Permit SL947 ISSUED TO MINTWORTH QUAYS LIMITED TO OPERATE A LANDFILL SITE AT RATTLECHAIN TIP.

BCS 2206 granted May 1993, development of land without compliance with conditions 3,9,18 and 19 of BCS 1813.

BCS 2244 Not determined Storage of soils and topsoils

BCS 2407 granted September 1993, variation of conditions 9 and 18 of BCS 1813. All work to be implemented within 19 months and a leachate disposal system installed within 19 months, i.e completed by the end of April 1995

BCS 2585 granted with conditions 28/9/94

Section 73 application to vary conditions 9 and 18 of BCS1813 as amended by BCS2407

BCS 2880 granted with conditions 25/3/96

Residential development on the land following infill by sand and granular material together with ancillary engineering works and gas vent barrier on western boundary of the land

BCS 3272 Granted with conditions 15/1/96

Section 73 application in respect of condition 3 of BCS 1813

BCS 3242 granted with conditions 1/9/97

Section 73 application to vary conditions 1 and 20 of BCS 1813 (AS AMMENDED) in respect of the technical specification of the cap to and profile of the finished tip.

BCS 3593 Granted with conditions 1/9/97

Section 73 application in respect of amended condition 3 of BCS 1813 to extend time. Amended condition 3 states “The operations authorised by this permission BCS1813 shall be discontinued on or before 3rd September 1996.”

This application sort to vary condition 3 to extend time period for further 12 months to 3rd September 1997.

BCS 3979 Granted with conditions 22/10/97

Section 73 application to vary condition 3 of BCS1813

DC/98/34753 REFUSED 9/2/99 Appeal withdrawn 22/12/99

Section 73 application to vary condition 3 of BCS1813 to extend the completion date for landfill operations from 30/9/98 to 30/4/99.

DC/99/35487 Granted with conditions 6/8/99

Section 73 application to vary condition 13 of planning permission BCS 1813 to extend the period of time for implementation of landscaping from 31/5/99 to 30/11/99.

DC/38330 Granted with conditions 31/12/01

Section 73 application. Variation of condition 14 of planning permission BCS 2880 to extend the time for completion of the landfill operation until 25th July 2003.

DC/02/39569 Granted with conditions 3/10/02

Section 73 application. Variation of condition 4 of planning permission BCS 2880 to extend time for the submission of reserved matters applications until 25th July 2003.

DC/02/39689 Granted with conditions 3/10/02

Section 73 application . Variation of condition 20 of planning permission BCS2880

DC/02/38855 Granted with conditions 28/3/02

Section 73 application- variation of condition 5 of planning permission BCS2880 to extend the time for submission of reserved matters until 25th July 2002.

Some of this protracted landscaping operation would become planning application DC/02/39115– The Barratt Homes development to extend MacDonald close and create streets like Addington Way and Shelbourne Close.

The key points to bring out of this complex and ludicrous 12-13 year operation , which as previously stated was originally supposed to last less than half of this are

• it was overseen by the same entity, sometimes operating under various guises but usually “Mintworth”. John Stewart Hurst and his son John Leigh Jarrod Hurst,  often referred to as John Hurst Snr and John Hurst Jnr respectively were at the helm of operations throughout.
• Section 73 applications are a legal tool of The Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This allows applications to be made for permission to develop without complying with a condition(s) previously imposed on a planning permission. The local planning authority can grant such permission unconditionally or subject to different conditions, or they can refuse the application if they decide that the original condition(s) should continue.
• Virtually all of the Hurst’s section 73 applications were approved, or recommended for approval, as were their planning applications by Sandwell council and by one planning officer- namely John Baylay.
• Much of the applications were dealt with through the solicitors of this company – principally Halliwell Landau via Roger Lancaster.
• Mintworth et al appeared to have considerable difficulty finishing anything to agreed time limits- hence the number of applications asking for more time to “extend” operations- which also appeared to coincide with applications to tip more foundry sand- which of course they were being paid to tip on the site.

Below is a letter from a former director of a company who appear out of nowhere to have shown an interest in the continued dumping of foundry sand on the former brickworks site. The concern of this company director for  business does not appear to care about the end point of where its waste ends up, and in the case of the foundry sand, the “misery” it caused local residents in the process.

I could not really give a flying f##k about Darcast Limited or its survival, but the fears were clearly not realised from this scaremongering letter with the company still in business today as another entity. Let’s hope they have however found a better way of disposing of their waste. Let’s also be clear in that the cheapness of the disposal was profit for the company who delivered and tipped the waste, and in time over tipped the waste and left it there, also blocking two rights of Way which remain “substantially blocked” according to Sandwell Council.

One can clearly see the residents frustration about all of this and the letters of objection every time The Hurst’s applied for yet another planning extension to their operations. Houses were allegedly blackened, and people feared for their health whilst also reporting noise and little consideration for their wellbeing. These are matters of record.

The letters, (just some of those in objection to the never ending saga of applications that I have read in relation to this site) below speak for themselves, written by people living on this estate that had to live with the issues of this company tipping and shifting waste on a daily basis over many years with little apparent direction as to where it was all going. Collectively it is not at all unfair to state that they offer a very real warning from history.

“black dust, all over our houses, washing, gardens and cars”

“Perhaps when we are dead and buried, (long after the likes of you and John Hurst), you may feel a little sorry for what you allow to go on on that site called “rattlechain tip” …

…..do you think money for him is more important than the health of people on Gladstone Drive?”

“we were told we would have 100 lorries a day for two years to clear the land. 9 years on it still is not finished….

…we are very very frustrated and think we have been treated really bad by the council and the landowner. We have also lost around £5000 off the value of our house which we can not sell because of the mound of land.”

“the landowner does not reply to letters sent to him.”

 

opposition and numerous calls fall on deaf ears at SMBC, and like “living down a mine”

“I have made numerous calls to various departments , including environmental health….to express my concern about the height of the dirt tip, and indeed the pollution it is now causing to myself and my neighbours. I can only assimilate our present environment to living down a mine…..

I cannot express strongly enough my opposition to this particular planning request to extend the licence for Rattlechain. I am sick to the high teeth of the dirt and grime that is consistently coming across rattlechain, dirtying our property and doing who knows what to our health.”

time extensions

“this particular company seem to request “extensions” on a regular basis, and nothing seems ever closer to finishing.”

 

 

“A lot of people are suffering from chest problems, and even my own Grandaughter who lives with us has been diagnosed as having asthma at age 7, and she is one of many in the close proximity of this eyesore”

“Our properties are being devalued due to the black dust coming from this site…..

….why should we suffer daily from the constant havoc this site is causing to the residents of this once peaceful estate? “

And then there are the excuses for the never ending “reclamation” that actually was never fully realised across the whole site- to the point of building houses upon it. But when the weather is blamed for not being able to comply with a planning application (and asking for yet more time)- you start to get the impression that someone must really be taking the piss.

For a pictorial illustration of what we are talking about- take a look at this stock image of one of the houses in Gladstone Drive and the proximity of the foundry sand pile in the face of it.

Or maybe this one of tippers looking down from above. You can imagine the plumes of dust cascading across below.

This Express and Star article “Tipping misery goes on despite promises”  records the “misery” still further.

“Families who live near to a controversial Tividale tip have had their hopes of an end to their seven year nightmare dashed. Dust clouds have blown onto homes around the rattlechain tip off Temple Way since work began in 1992.”

The Environment Agency confirmed in the FOI request put to them that the waste management licence for this site was conveniently never surrendered – which would have involved completion of all the aspects of the licence.

“The operator Mintworth Quays Ltd; were dissolved on 22 March 2007 whereupon the licence SL947 ceased to exist.” 
Quite clearly there is a major sense of Deja Vu about all of this with an uncanny situation now unfolding in exactly in the manner that it did in 1990. A new Black Country Development Corporation in the form of “The Black Country Local Enterprise partnership”. Secret meetings taking place at the Temple between organisations plotting housebuilding and residents in the dark, glossy propaganda in the form of The Dudley port Supplementary planning document…..

– that is except to say that we now live in the internet age, and people are no longer in the dark and can carry out research in a much better way for themselves.

There are now even more residents living in the vicinity of the proposed ludicrous “garden city” housing area. I just wonder what “misery” stories they will be telling and what letters they will be writing in the years to come if this scheme gets the green light?

Some of the letter writers at Temple Way Estate appear to have contacted elected members, but unfortunately letters to many local politicians in this part of the world fall on deaf ears because they are business whores who cannot do enough favours for their business clientele. The only time they solicit residential dwellers are shortly before elections- and then they are gone again like toms into the night.

Many local elected are also private landlords, and so there can never be enough new houses built for them to line their seedy pockets still further. They can however be voted out.

To comment and object against these proposals and to stop the “misery” coming back please contact

ldf_planning@sandwell.gov.uk.

#STOP THE GARDEN CITY

about to be shattered…again…..?

#mobilise, #galvanise #activise.

Thumbs down to “The Garden City”

A vitally important consultation is now underway concerning the futures of all residents of Tividale and the Tipton area centred around Dudley Port. I cannot stress enough how important it is for residents who live in areas where new housing is proposed to have their say about their future wellbeing.

Many of these sites are not at all suitable for housing, and are either built on old toxic tips or situated right next to others. None of the people proposing these schemes in their ivory towers really care where housing is stuck- they just have responsibility for meeting targets set by bureaucrats in National and local Government who neither care nor live in any of the areas affected.

It is the quite disastrous EU open door policy and failure of The Blair Government and subsequent ones to stop it that has caused the shortfall in housing, the lack of services and the impossible task of meeting needs. This is not the fault of those who came here seeking a better life, but they like the existing longstanding community need to be educated about the dire tipping history in this area, and ensure they are not conned into believing that they are buying a “quality home” in picturesque surroundings.

Developers are greedy liars with plenty of money to use “environmental consultants” to push through their hair brained schemes. Planners talk of “visions” for areas, yet these paperweight pipe dreams in the case of the area known as “The fomer Duport’s Tip” – actually on the site of the former Rattlechain brickworks and situated to the East of Rattlechain lagoon, did not materialise over 30 years ago when The Black Country Development Corporation touted the area in the same terms of “transformation” as the current unelected quango’s propose.

Seen it all before

WHO ARE “THE BLACK COUNTRY ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP”, WHO ARE “THE BLACK COUNTRY CONSORTIUM”, WHO ARE THE WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY”, AND WHY SHOULD A PLANNING INSPECTOR BASED IN BRISTOL BE ABLE TO DETERMINE THE LANDSCAPE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN AN AREA OVERPOPULATED ALREADY WHERE AS THOSE WHO BY THEIR OWN CHOICE FROM THE AFOREMENTIONED NON-ENTITIES LIVE IN SPLENDID RURAL ISOLATION THAT IS PROTECTED FROM “GREEN-BELT” DEVELOPMENT?

Why should the geographically distinct areas of Tipton and Oldbury be consumed and its green borders removed and cack handedly welded into one sprawling housing estate which may after what it is built on forthwith be known as just “OLD TIP“?

The document entitled “The Dudley port supplementary planning document” sits below something known as “The Black Country Core Strategy”- (yes they really make it easy to understand don’t they), which is an overarching document approved in 2011/12 which I gave a submission at the time.

Read this “Tale of Two Tips document below.

two tips

There is now a consultation review about this starting on 3rd July, and if you really want to endure the oppressive 100 plus page document, you can comment on that HERE. Please do, because local authorities/planners don’t want you to object to their scheming plans.

What the Dudley Port supplementary planning document missed out was the so called “SWOT” analysis. This stands for “Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.” I asked for this in a freedom of information request to Sandwell council.

It was revealed that several bodies met at the Hindu Temple in May concerning this scheme, yet no one from the local area, crucially residents whom it will affect were even invited to ask questions- questions which will be pretty bloody relevant to THEM when they realise the years of tipping activity and disruption that will affect the value of their homes and cause untold misery environmentally.

That’s a pretty big “threat” , yet barely a mention of the proximity to this hazardous waste landfill site containing a banned rat poison that is emitting toxic gas.

The SWOT analysis provides a very interesting insight into this whole scheme, and underlines what we already know regards the “Threats” to this nonsense house building “opportunities”. The threats are summarised but not fully elucidated, and revealing in that the Newcomen Drive proposals are financially not sound because of remediation constraints.

“LACK OF GAP FUNDING TO REMEDIATE LIMESTONE MINE HOUSING ACCOMODATION AT CONEYGREE”

What is not revealed in this threat is that the same land owner of this site also owns the area around the former rattlechain brickworks (“former Duport’s Tip”. Read about how “Duport Properties Limited” and “Birlee industrial Limited” operated on this site in the late seventies/early 80’s HERE.

Much disruption and what local residents of Gladstone Drive and surrounding streets described as “misery” occurred throughout the 1990’s with grandiose “reclamation” schemes” which facilitated the development of the former sewage works (now Callaghan and Wilson Drives) , and the extension of MacDonald Close in the furthest part away from the former “Duport’s Tip” area. Much controversy surrounds these developments, particularly the sewage works and how Barratt Homes did not tell buyers about Rattlechain lagoon. Barratt’s also built on the MacDonald Close development.

In terms of the current proposed sites, neither of these two schemes have produced ANY form of action within the last several years, and one has to ask WHY?

Is it acceptable  that someone can sit on land and wait for a tax payer money tree to come along and pay for site restoration/remediation that they themselves are clearly not willing or are financially unable to bring forward themselves, let alone “pay” for polluting it in the first place?

“CONTAMINATED LAND REMEDIATION COSTS”

All of this land would be classed as “contaminated” if it were brought forward for development because it would not be safe to live in such areas without remediation. I have touched on some of the issues surrounding the old brickworks site and especially the former so called “Duport’s tip”- an absolute disgrace that should never have happened because of the conman Sydney Sheldon who claimed to be a brick maker but only facilitated rubble tipping.

“INNAPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENT”

Who wants to live next to a gassing toxic waste lagoon classed as a “hazardous waste site” that still has yet to be remediated? Anyone? Does anyone want to risk their families health in the years to come when the outcomes of living next to this site on human health are currently not known?

During works by Mintworth in the 1990’s people were complaining about asthma on the Temple Way Estate being elevated by the amounts of foundry sand being churned up and spread. I will go into more detail on this in an upcoming blog post, but soil derived dust was something that was never dealt with sufficiently within the terms of the licence issued.

The lessons of history are crucial to understanding what this consultation is about because if you are clueless on the history of this area (as the compilers of this plan appear to be), then you are truly open to being exploited. Recent events which have made building control and planning matters international news have raised the spectre of how easily those at the top overlook so much regards future effects of their decisions. But it is not just the cladding of high rise buildings that needs re-evaluation, it is the foundations at the bottom and the land which it is built on that will affect people long into the future, and long after the greedy developers have left the scene.

The lessons of places such as Love Canal have not really been learned, and sticking half a metre of top soil over former tipping land does not make it “safe”. As has recently come to light in Walsall, this process of building on old contaminated land sites, deemed “acceptable” is going to have a very costly consequence for that authority and the people now living there.

HOW LITTLE SANDWELL HAS LEARNED FROM THIS.

PLEASE INFORM THE COUNCIL OF YOUR OBJECTIONS TO THIS SCHEME, AND IF YOU PREFER TO SEE THIS

INSTEAD OF YEARS OF THIS.

YOUR FUTURES ARE AT STAKE. MAKE YOUR VIEWS COUNT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

#STOP “THE GARDEN CITY”.

….It’s just a dirty pity

What was buried in your backyard?

Do you live in Macdonald Close, Addington Way, Shelbourne Close or Portland Drive , Tividale?

What’s in your backyard?

Here’s some important information for you. The stuff you can’t find anymore because it’s been buried.

Check out these freedom of information requests

SMBC REQ 10 WASTE LICENCES SL113 and SL129

FOI REQ 16 site licence 303

SMBC REQ 11 SL502 Duport Properties Ltd

Did you live or work in the Temple Way area in the 1980’s/1990’s. Did you suffer any ill health effects like asthma?

HSE ASBESTOS ADVICE

n.b Subsequent planning applications and landfill operations may have displaced or removed these materials , but may also have compromised human and environmental health by doing so to outlying areas. The same planning authority , Sandwell, granted tipping of these wastes under these vague auspices.

More soon.

Company number 1134915 may well be an obscure non entity known to the general public. It is however all that really remains- (except the dire pollution legacy), of the once second largest chemical company in the UK.

The dates of the demise of Albright and Wilson shown from the Tenneco ownership days are shown below, with the company now known as “Rhodia reorganisation Ltd”.

There are pages and pages of good stuff on the companies House website- particularly about the individuals who were running this environmental shambles from Trinity Street- or at some points a “world headquarters” in another part of Oldbury.

Extracts below are taken from a document concerning flotation of the company .

The historic context of this came when American owners Tenneco wanted disposal of the British company for restructuring of their key operations after a 24 year period of involvement with the firm. The announcement for AW shares came in late 1994.

This included 1,540,000 shares allocated to employees- I wonder how many “comrades” in Oldbury took up the offer? 😆 In just five years however , the company would no longer exist!

The brief makes reference to Albright and Wilson’s involvement with other environmental chemical polluters like Monsanto, as well as the planning application BCS 2336  for extending the phosphorus trichloride plant at Oldbury and also the phosphorus oxychloride plant.

Not content with trying to blow up the local area, (as well as poisoning the ducks and giving their employees phossy jaw), the company were forever trying to blow their own trumpet in terms of how they were saving the environment. They jockingly regarded it as one of their “strengths”.

The real truth was somewhat evidentially different.

“Albright and Wilson attaches high priority to the protection of the health and safety of its employees, customers, neighbours and others who they may come into contact with or be affected by, its operations and products. It also recognises its duty to protect the environment both in the vicinity of its operations and elsewhere by the responsible management of waste materials.”

You really could not make this bullshit up- and not mentioned in this little piece were the facts that within a five year period when this was written , a large phosphorus fire at their Portishead site had occurred as well as incidents at Oldbury- and of course the small matter of the 1991 Charlston explosion which killed 9 people- they didn’t get any shares.

The mention of waste materials  is particularly important to this blog as the management of them was anything but “responsible” as evidenced by the site records at Rattlechain following on from the time.

The mention of the fact that the technical director was ultimately responsible for AW’s actions is interesting as we can all blame it on the gentleman from that time- namely John Robert Adsetts.

Albright and Wilson, like most polluters continue to operate, legitimised their activities through the device of the environmental consultant. In this case an American outfit called “Dames and Moore”- sounds like a swingers bar. This merged into URS in 1999- with which we are familiar from Rhodia’s subsequent paid reports. They were apparently appointed to survey all of Albright and Wilson’s operative sites, as well as those they still had to remediate.

Skip the bull below to the crucial statement in red underlined- because that is key- and the key from which all environmental consultants operate in reporting what their clients want them to. They undertook no analysis of site samples whatsoever in coming to conclusions.

“The Dames and Moore assessment did not take the form of a full range of investigations  (in that no soil or groundwater sampling took place.. “

The letter from February 1995 from this company is also interesting.

“No significant issues were identified by us that were previously unknown to Albright and Wilson’s management…”

So does this mean that Dames and Moore investigated the operation at Rattlechain, the historic military disposal of phosphorus based weapons at the site and the risk of white phosphorus being ingested by birds as a known banned rat poison? So what did John Adsetts already know then at this time or was white phosphorus at this site just not deemed “significant”?

If I had known then what I know now- it would have been pretty bloody significant for him and his wretched company that’s for sure!

It would be interesting to see what Dames and Moore came up with at this site- but that report is likely buried well in the vaults of PO BOX 80. I attempted to ask the Environment agency about reports concerning restoration options that URS had apparently carried out in an FOI request-namely

CL Associates, “restoration Options for Rattlechain Sludge Lagoon, Oldbury, West Midlands, dated July 1996, reference no 6871 and
URS Corporation ltd, Options Study for restoration of the Rattlechain sludge lagoon, Ref 1064/44557-020-787/JC/RC, dated 20 March 2002

and they claimed to have never seen it.

The final company report for Albright and Wilson in 1998 also contains an interesting statement regards a Friends of The Earth report of that year where AW was heavily criticised for continued pollution.

Sales in the UK in that year hit £241.3, the same year that Adsetts retired.

So as these executives retired into a phosphorus sunset on golden pensions, so behind then was left the toxic legacy of their operations. According to Hugh Podger in his book “Albright and Wilson The last 50 years, “in September of 1999 Chief executive Paul Rocheleau stated that for the first time in 13 years with A&W it was possible to say that there were no significant environmental issues outstanding.”

Of course, we know different!

It didn’t take long for the failed nonsense of “the garden city” to rear its ugly head again in the guise of a new document entitled “Dudley Port supplementary planning document” , recently published on Sandwell council’s website. This glossy brochure has been recommended for consultation at the borough’s cabinet meeting which of course just gets waived through. This consultation apparently according to the pretty picture laden article will take place in June.

“the SPD will be subject to public consultation with a range of stakeholders, agencies, residents and businesses in order to capture and consider all issues and options that will lead to the development of this spatial plan.”

There are many aspects to look at from this utter pile of bollocks, some of which I already mentioned in a previous post about history of some of the proposed site around Rattlechain lagoon. I am not aware of who is behind this or if they are just naïve about the history of the area and its industrial contamination for profit. That I can educate them on by reading this website and the proven link sources which confirm reliability- very often from SMBC’s own files.

What I am not going to tolerate is ignorance once they are familiar with that history, and a fantasist belief that they can somehow bypass, ignore or get around that history by trying to create the kind of fantasist brochure as outlined in the supplementary document.

Flowery .GOV language abounds as usual in the prospectus with “sustainability” “diversity”, “community cohesion”  etc mentioned throughout hitting the reader like a rag covered head butt.

It appears a secret meeting between different parties took place at the ever expanding temple in Tividale- although no members of the community or public appear to have been invited for their views. This led to a so called “SWOT analysis”- how they love their acronyms, which refers to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is stated in the document that the full SWOT analysis is in the appendices, though there are no appendices with the document. I have asked for this in a freedom of information request to Sandwell council. It will be interesting to see what they consider to be the weaknesses and threats.

There will be many posts to come and also pages regarding the main focus of land in this supplementary planning document surrounding Rattlechain lagoon, which is located on the former Rattlechain/Barnett’s  brickworks site. The term “Rattlechain Tip” does not in fact really apply to this land, but has been identity grabbed at some point in time in order to try to muddy the waters of history- that history being coloured by indiscriminate and unsanctioned dumping of waste and more precisely the over tipping of foundry sand across vast swathes which has left a giant plateau overlooking the Birmingham canal and lagoon itself.

The description below from Sandwell council offers a good starting point in investigating what went on here, following the absolute con artistry from Sidney Sheldon’s dissolution of brick making at the site.

According to M.W Harris, chief planning officer at SMBC, the sprawling site by 1984 which included the so called “Duport’s Tip” .

“I have been aware of tipping at the site for over 16 years, and for at least four years, no control was exercised over the materials deposited or placement of those materials.”

He also goes on to state that “pictorial records have been kept of the various stages of filling the site from 1973 onwards.”

“Materials of organic origin, chemical drums and unsuitable industrial waste are present. Some evidence of dumping of liquid waste exists. Unmarked tankers have been witnessed pumping liquids into lagoons in the centre of the site. Additionally large quantities of hazardous waste , including asbestos were deposited.”

“The area of the land holding which was the former Duport Tip was subject to the bulk of the indiscriminate dumping.”

Harris goes on to state to the Black Country Development Corporation that

“The bulk of the surface fills within the Duport Tip contain dangerous and obnoxious materials. Any scheme involving excavation, moving or removal of such materials should provide sufficient safeguards to protect the adjoin housing estate against dust and gases from dangerous and obnoxious waste. Potentially dangerous materials such as asbestos will require special licences before it is disturbed. The Health and Safety Executive should be consulted regarding their special requirements.”

I am aware that this material referred to was excavated under licence but never removed legally from the site. IT IS STILL THERE.

I will look at the full story of this site and its interface with the real “rattelchain site” in future posts and pages.

This vast history can be detected and précised and I will do this so that those now living on the Temple Way Estate and also the new former sewage works site of Callaghan and Wilson Drives are not conned into believing that any form of new works associated with this site will bring anything but “misery” to the area, as it did throughout the 1990’s.

This term “misery” is not one I use , but one of a resident who lived in Temple Way at the time and which was clearly shared by others who became used to the daily soiling of their windows and washing together with black dirty foundry sand with non stop vehicular activity also shattering the peace. This took place over a number of years through sustained planning applications sort to extend the time of tipping- in reality allowing more tipping to take place which would have course generated associated income for doing so.

Make no mistake , the provenance of this tipping, the various companies and directors involved are all traceable and are not going to be allowed to consign themselves to vacant amnesia- which is a big problem for local authorities like Sandwell when it comes to “the polluter pays principle”. It is quite clear with this site, mothballed when a site licence was conveniently surrendered by a company going into voluntary liquidation, only to reinvent itself and carry on as almost the exact same named company, who was involved and at what time.

Save for a brief tatting operation for want of a better adequate description which took place  in 2010-2011, it has remained untouched but greened over producing a varied and important compliment to Sheepwash and attracts a good variety of biodiversity. One birdwatcher in the area has commented that it is better than Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve in that it is “untouched” with little human activity as is associated with the SMBC owned 90 acre SINC.

View of the green mound that was once black

This therefore is where the planning document instantly starts to fail when it talks of housebuilding- because extra house building in this area will destroy both this site and doom Sheepwash to be nothing other than a dog crap stop with water feature views. Unfortunately it already has become this to a large extent. Whilst business prospers with fellating by political heavyweights , so nature reserves and nature corridors diminish.

The very brief summary of this site that I have given above appears omitted from the new Dudley Port document- but why should public money be spent facilitating the clean up and removal of thousands of tonnes of useless material – some 6000 tonnes were allowed from this licence- per day!- HOW HAS THE KNOWN POLLUTER PAID?

The description of the site offered by SMBC and presumably pitched at unsuspecting developers is priceless and omits the key information- which SMBC as evidenced above are fully aware of or should be!

“Constraints: information regarding ground conditions is limited but it is known that the site will require significant engineering and regrading of the foundry sand to provide suitable levels. 

The total site may not be capable of complete development, however, this would provide the opportunity to provide green landscaping belts across the site.  access through the existing residential area will need to be addressed to ensure that transport issues are mitigated and resolved.  the site has been marketed previously with little interest from housing developers due to perceived market issues, however, the 60 unit residential scheme at Palmerston Drive shows that there is appetite for housing within the local area. “

What a complete and total disingenuous statement this is! So this is basically stating that significant works will need to be undertaken but without a timescale, and of course, all of the green will disappear and become black again. The area which would not be capable of development is of course the former Duport’s Tip- oh yes that was the unsanctioned dumping area that contained “Materials of organic origin, chemical drums and unsuitable industrial waste”

The fact that it has been marketed previously is a good indication that developers are not as bloody stupid as the council would have them believe as long as they have done their homework, or are for example reading this blog post now. Some of the other so called laughably “sustainable” sites mentioned include some interesting links. The Newcomen Drive site is owned by the same entity as that as which deposited foundry sand at the former brickworks site. Granted outline planning permission in 2008 on appeal, a further planning application requesting more time in 2012 to commence the scheme was sort. THE SITE HAS YET TO BE TOUCHED OR RECLAIMED AND WILL ALSO REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT DEPOSITS OF FOUNDRY SAND AND REQUIRE “SIGNIFICANT FUNDING”- DO YOU SEE A PATTERN EMERGING HERE?

Another site off Lower City Road is located next to Rhodia/Solvay’s Gower Tip– another contaminated hellhole where developers consider it a good idea to house people next to an island of toxic and in that case radioactive wastes. The explanation offered to a local journalist a few years ago that this “uranium oxide” had been removed from the site has no credibility or paper trail under licenced consent whatsoever and is not believable at all.

The final insult to people’s intelligence is the brief but telling reference to Rattlechain lagoon itself- that carbunckle which thwarted all attempts by The Black Country Development Corporation and others to build houses across the whole area by infilling the lagoon with the foundry sand- i.e a bumper waste tipping payday for the site operators.

“The area to the south and east of the site is predominantly residential, and to the immediate west lies the wet tip. “

That’s it “the wet tip”. No mention of the fact that it contains tens of tonnes of a banned rat poison –white phosphorus which will catch fire when exposed to air and that is known to have resulted in birds being poisoned who chanced to land on it. That too was covered over and not removed, but developers and “regenerators”  are not going to be allowed to forget that it is there- or the threat it still poses with the clear phosphine gas being generated.

I will have plenty to say in the consultation, and though it is ultimately a battle which will only be lost through the skulduggery of business and political forces, I will do all that I can to delay, frustrate and derail any plans to build houses near to Sheepwash and Rattlechain lagoon. The cost to nature the environment and public health is too great to comprehend.

It’s French election time and sacre bleu, the CEO of Rhodia/Solvay has only gone and not “stayed silent” about who he wants to win. As a former French civil servant, Monsieur ClamadiEU is well placed to know the score and he belongs in a circle where making money is guaranteed by lobbying for globalisation and EU propaganda in Brussels.

ClamadiEU has apparently “broken with tradition” and alongside other money making executives in France such as those wonderful environmentally friendly people as Veolia (lol) backed the pro European ex banking globalist Macron. The text of the French interview from Les Echos is translated into English below.

“On the evening of the first round, almost half of French voters gave their votes to candidates who made partial or total rejection of the European project a strong point of their programs and Marine Le Pen, the most radical in its anti-European speech, Reaches the second round of the presidential election. This vote seriously threatens the future by directly attacking nearly sixty years of common history around the construction of Europe.

As a leader of a large industrial group and as a citizen convinced of the historical rupture that the European construction represents, I can not remain silent. The next day proposed by some of us is the choice of withdrawal into oneself at a time when the uncertainty that hangs over the world, both from the point of view of the major societal and climatic stakes and from the geopolitical context, Stronger Europe.

Our fellow citizens who voted for the anti-European candidates expressed a legitimate anxiety. Europe no longer fulfills its protective role in the face of the monetary, economic, security and immigration crises. But we are all – politicians, business leaders, citizens – co-responsible for the decline of a project that was bequeathed to us after a conflict dominated by destructive nationalisms. Instead of trying to improve and adapt it, we criticized it forgetting to recognize its merits.

Europe is neither left nor right. It is, as the Republic is in France, a framework and means for guaranteeing the values, solidarity, dignity and development of all Europeans. Europe is an opportunity to reveal our potential. I perceive it every day: we operate in a single market that guarantees the circulation of quality, safe and competitive products; We have an area of economic and legal stability conducive to the economic development of enterprises and the well-being of citizens.

In the face of those who are proposing to get out of it, I would rather ask for a more ambitious Europe. To build this Europe we must first believe in ourselves. The borders that we brought down yesterday for trade and men must tomorrow fall on other subjects like taxation or social rights. More Europe is to continue to ensure that our universities and research centers continue to play a major role in the development and transfer of knowledge.

More Europe is creating the ecosystem that will allow our companies to play an equal part with the world leaders and to be the vectors of a social model imbued with European values. At a time when some would like to bury the European project, hiding the major economic and social setbacks that this would entail, I call for concrete initiatives for more Europe, building a more promising and inclusive future for our fellow citizens.”
ClamadiEU talks of “European values” , “safe and competitive products”. Of course he stays fairly silent on matters such as Rhodia’s appalling environmental pollution record: spillages, emissions, and in this part of the world fires.

CEFIC, the chemical industry lobby group from which he is a major player of course favour TTIP, and so no doubt does Macron.

It looks almost certain that he will be the new leader of France following the pitiful Holland, but of course it is a German cock in a frock that is really ruling the roost.

It was recently revealed that the undefined area known as “the black country” is to receive its own “Garden City.” 

“This Garden City vision will utilise existing green, cultural and economic assets to develop attractive places where people want to live, transforming the reality and perception of the Black Country. “

Or so the unelected “Black country Local Enterprise partnership” spout in their glossy literature and video. The truth of course is a different story, and this is not the first time that this sort of tripe has been touted. The Black Country Development Corporation ran along similar lines, whereby it had the power, though never the people backed mandate to compulsory purchase vast areas of so called “brownfield” land. The whole area around Rattlechain lagoon, as well as the lagoon itself was part of this strategy, but it never materialised despite attempts to try and reinvent the area- at one point as “the black country quays”. The big stumbling block- the lagoon and its toxic contents, which at this time Albright and Wilson were still trying to promote as being “vital” to their site operations as a waste disposal site.

Sunken ship

The planning applications surrounding this and reports are vast, but I have read them all and will over the course of time be adding them to this website as a lasting record, a record so that no local residents in the area will be fooled as to what has gone before. The secretive meetings not attended by any local residents, statements made by none residents of the area employed by the BCDC , and plans drawn up by people attempting to make “a mint” from indiscriminate dumping are well worth seeing, and are the footprint of what will not be allowed to happen again.

The plans submitted in the “garden city” are a virtual reboot. I have annotated the diagram proposed for “Dudley Port” below with red crosses.

x denotes contaminated land.

The entire current autobase site, much of it within the former rattlechain contaminated site appears to be the principle “quality home” setting. On the Western side we have the overtipped former rattlechain brickworks site, itself containing the remnants of the new pit which was abandoned and filled with all kinds of uncharacterised shite from local industry for over several decades. The token green space within this denotes the location of this former pit. No doubt with the manner in which developers operate they will at some point attempt to amend these plans to cram in a few more houses on here just to milk the demand for housing quotas even more.

I have now released the second part of the planning history of this adjoining site up to the 1970’s when the brickworks went out of commission altogether.

Let’s be quite clear here, this will not create new jobs for industry. Sandwell Council recently appear to have changed track with The Vaughn trading estate which was earmarked for housing some time ago. It now appears that this will now become a hub for industry. Obviously the trade off will be to compulsory purchase the autobase site and relocate all the businesses on here just a hundred meters across the Netherton Branch canal. This is not therefore going to create new jobs, just relocate existing ones. I’m not sure what the likes of Barrett steel, Rhys Davies logistics or even Diamond busses who have recently just invested in a new site in this location will make of this, but no doubt significant portions of public money doled out by the unelected BCLEP will be used as a sweet persuader.

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE, AS IS ALLOWING GRANTS TO BE GIVEN OUT TO LANDBANKERS WHO HAVE THROUGH THEIR OWN DELIBERATE RECALCITRANCE FAILED TO CLEAR UP SITES BUT HAVE SAT ON ANOTHER QUANGO BEING CREATED TO FACILITATE ANOTHER “SHOVEL READY” SCHEME.

The nearby Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve, undervalued by the local council for years, and overpopulated by increasing numbers of anti social  slime who have settled in the area will only suffer, most evidently by pollution from every source of this disastrous scheme. I have seen it before in other places, and with The Environment Agency and Severn Trent totally unable to even trace the source of industrial pollution into the River Tame via the sewer network, it is quite clear to see where this pollution source will migrate , whatever the claims of stopping this from happening, to which the agency are totally lacking in being able to prevent.

The lack of transparency and hiding of historic information only serve to facilitate these greedy developer schemes, backed up by the institutionally corrupt “environmental consultant” industry (a.k.a the development facilitator industry).

But the BCLEP and all the other suited money grabbing twats clambering over diagrams such as this should heed a recent case concerning contaminated land and Walsall council.

A former gas works in Willenhall was transferred into the Stonegate housing estate.    The ruling by the Secretary of State to quash the council’s remediation notice means that Walsall council taxpayers are now potentially going to have to pay for the clean up of the land and not the company who developed the land. Does this case make it likely or less likely that local authorities will designate land as “contaminated” when they are likely to have to foot the bill for remediation?

The main chemical of concern to this council is one which is now massively widespread and will continue to thwart the developer conmen unless the pollutant linkages are of course covered up, by their “environmental consultants.”

Benzo (a ) pyrene is a known carcinogen and WMBC give a good assessment of the pollutant linkage pathways which could cause significant harm.

Soil derived dusts are by far the most likely pathway identified.

With reference to Albright and Wilson related activities we do have buried figures of benzo (a) pyrene detected in their former chemical arm.

I asked an FOI request about this study and contaminants.  This was particularly relevant as this study recommended removal of the material to an offsite source. The timeline of what happened to this appears to have become rather hazy between Rhodia and the EA, but none the less confirms what was being dumped into Rattlechain lagoon before licensing as it came from this direct source.

Of benzo (a pyrene) it was noted

“The presence of benzo (a)  pyrene, a proven carcinogen, to the total PAH levels is significant, and reported levels in the sediments similar to those reported for US crude oils. Since oil is likely to constitute more than 1.5% of the sediment weight, the level of benzo (a) pyrene in this component appears to be in the range of 80-140 mg/kg. “

NB this figure is significantly above the safe levels of this compound.

We recorded the unacceptable soil derived dust which would have included dredged sediment material being generated at the rattlechain site during the so called “clean up” works at the time.

THE PAID FOR HPA STUDY DID NOT BOTHER ANALYSING FOR BENZO (A) PYRENE IN THE LAGOON SEDIMENT, ALONG WITH MANY OTHER CHEMICALS LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN THERE.

Given that much of what went wrong in the Dudley port area occurred in the let’s dump as much shit as we can as fast as we can before new laws come in 1970’s, the omens are not very good.

Unfortunately the West Midlands County Council, and largely the utterly useless Walsall Council Hazardous Waste Unit oversaw the licensing of the sites, and now as before we appear to be regressing towards the West Midlands Combined Authority, an unelected bureaucracy. As part of this we are to get a mayor, a position that was also not elected by the choice of the people but by the clamour of politicians and their business chums wanting to get their hands on large amounts of central Government money.

The two likely candidates to fill this role, who do not even live in the area, for the Conservatives, ex John Lewis boss Andy Street, and ex Labour politician Sion Simon do not appear distinguishable in their ideas for house building.

Street wants to protect the so called “green belt” by cramming in more housing to diminish peoples quality of lives in urban areas. Simple Simon wants to do broadly the same- so why should anyone in these areas vote for this? Oldbury and Tipton may as well be merged if the green wedge between the two are soiled with more housing to form the new “OLDTIP”- which would actually be a good description of what occurred in both. Furthermore, talk of outside influences from London shaping local agendas are thrown out of the window with the idea that The black country is now a part of “Greater Birmingham”. This term was even touted at a seminar held in The South of France to sell this preposterous Garden city idea.

It isn’t the area they want to change , it is the name and identity of the area altogether. What difference does it make if those with the purse strings are in Birmingham instead of London? But you can stick as much lipstick on a pig as you want, it’s what’s underneath that defines it.

When first embarking on the odyssey that was determining what was poisoning the wildfowl at Rattlechain lagoon, what struck me most was the history of the company behind it. I say “the history” because as I would soon determine through my own investigations, most of this “local history” was in fact fake history , and even worse present day propaganda.

There is no doubt that Albright and Wilson in Oldbury made no secret of blowing their own trumpet locally, and had many political friends who gave them opportunities to prosper.  A so called “residents” group attended by a couple of councillors and people from organisations whom they at from time to time have donated money to can hardly be said to be representative of scrutiny as to  what they actually make and do down Trinity Street way.

Much of “100 years of phosphorus making” , the Centennial history of the Quaker firm is a manufactured fanciful account of the Albright and Wilson families up to 1951. Much of this has since been regurgitated, though crucially never really questioned nor examined by local historians who have written their own books tying in recollections of a few people with archive photographs. Now I have no problem with this, as it can be challenged, but when in one instance Albright and Wilson themselves paid for the print run of a local history book and were allowed to put forward an advertising piece on their present day activities written by their public relations officer, I have a very big problem with that being called “local history”. It is propaganda product placement not history, and a one sided unchallenged view.

Recently it appears that once again the name Albright and Wilson has been regurgitated in the form of a lottery funded project called “Made in Oldbury”. Once again the same names appear to be at the fore and it also appears to be a politically supported idea with Sandwell councils socialists on board.

Now I have no issue with all industrial activity in Oldbury or many of its firms. But I do have a massive problem with eulogising a company as poison crooked and polluting as that founded in Trinity Street, not least as for much of the latter half of the Twentieth Century they were not even British owned. First the American Tenneco, and then of course taken over and consumed by French Rhodia and now Belgian Solvay.

There appears to be a growing desire by authorities to remove peoples knowledge about what they can find out about the contamination history of their local area. I have previously highlighted how The Environment Agency have removed key information about hazardous waste licences from their website, offering a fraudulent review of what took place there, perhaps only serving the brownfield development industry who of course are so eager to build houses on any available piece of land, they care little about what lies beneath.

Add to this Sandwell council’s planning website. It was once possible to look at all of the so called “Hazardous Substance ” consents, granted by the council to the firm to store and use extremely dangerous substances, including chlorine and white phosphorus at their factory. I asked an initial freedom of information question to the council some time ago, yet their reply at the time was totally unhelpful and had to be challenged. There is no doubt they were trying to hide what was stored on that site from public gaze. The details of the consents however were finally revealed on whatdotheyknow.com.

Not only was this site a previous Ministry of Supply factory but in addition to the banned warfare WMD, one of the main chemicals manufactured and used on site -Phosphorus trichloride is the precursor to manufacturing VX nerve gas. It is also possible to use Trimethyl phosphite, also manufactured at Trinity Street.

It now appears that all of the background details for these Haz substance consents, including the committee reports and also the health and safety information submitted about the substances has also been removed from the planning website by persons or persons unknown within Sandwell council- because this is what you now get!

So who? and for what reason have they rubbed these out?

Luckily, I saved quite a few of the important documents, and so I have now made these available again on this website where the Sandwell council have acted to deny people this information about the Oldbury polluter.

HS/008

HS/009

HS/020

HS/021

HS/026

HS/032

HS/034

My attempt to release the  report into their toxic assault on the area in 2009 is currently with the Information commissioners office, but whatever the outcome I will be releasing far more detailed information about the production of phosphine at this site into the public domain than in the HSE’s redacted version.

Could it be that the authorities are more interested in trying to sell off land in derelict condition at surrounding sites for more housing, and deny future residents in this “consultation zone” any insight into what is on their doorstep? But there again despotic regimes do like using human shields to cover the tracks of chemical weapon producing establishments, (whilst also being total hypocrites in blaming others “by proxy” about chemical weapon manufacture and subsequent use.)

Derelict land at Mill Lane would make “first class” housing , with a factory with multiple hazardous waste substance consents within spitting distance.

An interesting ministerial statement made by William Hague, then Foreign Secretary in 2014 reads as follows.

Following Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) last year, and as part of the process to eliminate its chemical weapons (CW) programme, Syria provided a confidential declaration to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) which lists a number of states from which it obtained supplies of goods used in its CW programme.

The information in Syria’s declaration is classified under the terms of the CWC. However, I wish to inform the House that a review of our own files suggests that there were a number of exports of chemicals to Syria by UK companies between 1983 and 1986 which were likely to have been diverted for use in the Syrian programme.

These exports were:

–       several hundred tonnes of the chemical dimethyl phosphite (DMP) in 1983 and a further export of several hundred tonnes in 1985;

–       several hundred tonnes of trimethyl phosphite (TMP) in 1986;

–       a smaller quantity of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in 1986 through a third country.

All these chemicals have legitimate uses, for example in the manufacture of plastics and pharmaceuticals. However, they can also be used in the production of sarin.  DMP and TMP can also be used for the production of the nerve agent VX. That is why the export of such goods is strictly prohibited under the UK export regime introduced since the 1980s and progressively strengthened.

From the information we hold, we judge it likely that these chemical exports by UK companies were subsequently used by Syria in their programmes to produce nerve agents, including sarin.”

Well I never!

So from within Governance there appears to be a tendency to cover up what has gone before, and from within the community an attempt to rewrite the history and romanticise it  as though all the bad things were never there at all. Many people made money out of Oldbury and then buggered off- Albright and Wilson being one of the many and leaving behind only a toxic legacy. How proud they all must be in Langley of the creation of  a made banned rat poison and chemical weapon. One can also largely determine that not as much is obviously being made now in Oldbury. 😆

These type of arty-farty affairs do not do justice to the victims of industrial pollution. An old works photograph and an anecdote does not show what happened on the hospital ward to those in later life exposed  to what was “made in Oldbury”. I used to feel some sorrow for those involved in this, but on reflection they were just as much a  part in the toxic deception as the works managers -and so poetic justice. They do not show industrial pollution contaminating waterways and fish gasping for breath. They do not show abysmal air quality destroying peoples health, or certainly not toxic waste in a satellite waste dump poisoning birds.

A soppy poem or a wishy washy watercolour does not capture this suffering, which was also “Made in Oldbury”. But do the organisers of this project or its financial backers even care about detailing any of this “heritage”, or are they as before just propagandists of the chemical industry, so in love with the idea of changing nature that they are too blind to see what else their efforts did to ruin it beyond comprehension? That’s some legacy when after many decades of making in Oldbury, their dumping still scars the future landscapes of tomorrow.

Breaking history

Shock news has been released of plans to cull several fairies living at Rattlechain lagoon. The Oldbury Tinkerbells have incurred the wrath of Sandwell council and Solvay by lighting fires at the site and also playing loud music- in particular the Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl. One local councillor who did not wish to be named said “There are too many of them and I would support a limited cull innit?” “We’ve tried relocating them down South but you need a licence, and they just fly back here.” “They are taking over, and We own Oldbury, not them!”

A local resident who lives in neighbouring Callaghan Drive  added “Solvay told us that the fairies live at the bottom of our gardens and set fires regularly- that’s why they need to put up so many cctv cameras to catch them out for evidence.” “When we first moved here they assured us that the site contained the stuff used in toothpaste, but with the fairies parading nightly with no clothes on, it’s been blue minty hell living here!”

HUNDREDS of fairies have invaded

Whilst at the lagoon, our photographer snapped one of the creatures, thought to be a blue stripper perched on a bramble. He was even able to tempt it onto the end of his finger using a half cut grape.

Also found at the scene of the Johns Lane site was King/Queen of the white phosphorus tramp fairies Tinker the great- a most volatile fellow.

A Natural England spokesman confirmed ” the fairies were inadvertently released from a captive collection in Bournville and have spread across the West Midlands and beyond. They are known to have flown and also caught cross channel ferries to France breeding with the rare black headed ladyboy fairies there. ” “In addition if swallowed they can produce belching in small children.” We encourage authorities to put up fairy tails where they persist which appears to scare them and make them go away.”

Solvay declined to comment about spreading fairy tails at their Oldbury Toxic Hazardous waste site.