The former Coneygre foundry site off Coneygree Road, Tipton and land to the North of this has some inextricable links with the former Duport’s Tip area and the former Tividale sewage works area (now a housing estate), adjacent to Rattlechain lagoon. It is linked through the same operators- namely “Mintworth” and also their vast amounts of dumped foundry sand- much of it coming from the former foundry when it was operational.
Former Coneygre Foundry from 1935, showing canal basins and largely flat land at the Birmingham Old mainline canal side.
This site, like that of the former Duport’s Tip is one of the sites identified in the ludicrous so called “Dudley Port Garden City” prospectus promoted by Sandwell council. There have been many twists and turns with this site, which are still currently evolving, and it will be interesting to see how they play out from a planning point of view. People should read this for information purposes to perhaps make their own conclusions.
This first post of three looks at Mintworth’s legacy at this site; the abysmal over tipping of foundry sand whilst making a “mint” out of part of a site and leaving a shit tip behind that they didn’t want, and which would prove too costly for them to remediate- just like their other site less than a mile away.
We start the story with a description by Frank Pomlett– a director of Mintworth at the time, and his claimed history of the Coneygre Foundry site, at this point in time owned by Birmid Qualcast Limited. I cannot verify any of the statements made within his, though note that it is Mintworth’s position of the matter when they applied for a planning permission in 1985.
Pomlett claimed that 37 mine shafts were spread over the 22 acre site, with in addition limestone workings that had a depth of 200 metres. That is an awful lot of sand and material required to fill such holes and to stabilise in order to ever achieve any prospect of built development!
He estimates that 1 million tonnes of foundry waste arose from the Coneygre site, taking 200,000 return journeys to dump it.
Most interestingly he professes knowledge of the site in the 1960’s. We know at this time of course, that Mintworth did not exist, but Pomlett and fellow director John S Hurst’s former company “Birlee industrial limited” did.
An old advert advertising the services of this waste tipper appeared in The Birmingham Daily post in 1977.
“Unlimited quantities”
Pomlett’s enthusiasm for scrap metal recovery belies that fact that he and Hurst were basically just metal tatters from the foundry waste. The other side line industry that the sandmen used was the process of dumping the sand in the “construction industry,” He claims some 17,000 return journeys were made since 1965 shifting 200,000 tons of foundry sand.
This forms the background to Mintworth’s first foray into something bigger at this waste tip site when they submitted a planning application entitled
DA/18345 | Infilling of site to plans R/C/BQ/1 & 2. | Coneygre Foundry Site Coneygre Road Tipton.
This was submitted in 1984 under the guise of “land restoration”- now where have they used that term before. 🙄
Under Pomlett’s signature as “managing director”, a letter dated 15th November 1984 describes a five year plan to import 750,000 cubic metres of fill to restore the site. One may ask why they exported it in the first place given his earlier boasts? We get the first nonsense of Mintworth’s “associate companies “Mintworth Transport Limited” and “Recommet” . They were of course all the same company with the same directors!
We learn that they have operated on a site at Bustleholme Quarry (as Birlee Industrial Limited in whose name the licence was approved), which is coming to the end of its life. This was site licence SL88 which was approved on 15/2/1977 and the last input of waste (at least officially 😉 ) 1/4/1985 . Basically the Coneygre site appears to be in use as a profitable commercial toilet for Birlee/Mintworth and the industrial foundry polluters they served.
In the report to the then West Midlands County Council deciding the plans it is noted
“The site has been extensively tipped with foundry waste and there are four disused canal basins along the Northern boundary which have not been properly filled. The cumulative effect of all these factors is that the site is so extensively damaged that it is virtually undevelopable without huge capital expenditure.”
It is clear from these ludicrous plans that Mintworth have no intention of covering any of this cost- I.E the treatment of the undevelopable conditions of the shafts and limestone workings. (Some 38 years on nothing has changed there, as the constraints in the SWOT analysis for the DPGC prospectus confirm!).
It is estimated that 80 vehicles per day were to visit the site to shift the 750,000 cubic metres of material.
The site is adjacent to Lindley Avenue and Coneygree Road properties, as well as this point in time, a sports ground owned by Tipton Sports and Social club.
The planning application was granted on Valentines day 1985 with 22 conditions. This made clear the types of material allowed on site and to be used or stored. It also noted dust suppression and noise nuisance measures were added to supposedly stop problems for local residents.
All of this operation of course required another waste disposal licence from those useless tossers at WMCC to pass, which would later be taken over by Sandwell council. Site Licence SL487 was granted on 28th March 1985. I have looked at this licence and its conditions HERE.
Entrance to the mothballed site in 2019.
It also appears that Mintworth had set their sites on something else at this site, namely coal deposits from dumped pit waste. Pomlett estimated that 100,000 tonnes would be treated which would take a year to progress. As always with Mintworth, a door opening leads to more requests, and presumption of further activities, which in their opinion never need any further clarification, even from the regulators or experts. It was exactly the same at Duport’s Tip. It is stated that “we have had metal screening plants ” on the site for over 20 years and the equipment is portable and not fixed. He also argues on the point of the coal not being coal but “chattel” . I would doubt however that they sold it as such once recovered.
Of course the WMCC accepted these arguments and rolled over as they always did.
Local residents had noted Mintworth’s activities on site, and in particular the enormous mound formed as a result of the granting of the planning permission in 1985.
Once being granted permission for soiling the land, it would not take Mintworth long to adopt the next phase of planning at this site.
BCS0315 Residential development, landscaping and woodland planting and relocated and improved football pitch and clubroom.
This was an outline application , approved on 7th October 1988, by Mintworth’s best friends the now established Black Country Development Corporation. Condition 6 of the 22 in this permission underlined the issues of potential collapse of the limestone workings. There were concerns about the contamination and stability of the site from Sandwell council.
A cost to the public purse- “this application are the subject of a city grant application to the development corporation for assistance in reclamation.”
The reserved matters application was granted the following year on 19th June 1989.
Around this time, The Sandwell Evening Mail reported on the dangers of scrap metal collecting at this site.
Published: Wednesday 22 March 1989 Newspaper: Sandwell Evening Mail
BCS0585 Residential development, landscaping and woodland planting and relocated and improved football pitch and clubroom.
Sandwell council had earlier appointed Ove Arup to investigate the limestone workings, who found that the mine is “open” and the cavities were water filled. The existence of these workings precluded built development. The mound of foundry sand covered over this hidden mine. It is revealed in the consultation report that the forestry commission would be paying for the planting of trees.
“To fully treat all located shafts on the site would be prohibitively expensive. For this reason the forestry planted area will be fenced off and will not be available for public access.”
BCS 0827 Former Coneygre foundry General industrial and associated open storage/car parking
Mintworth submitted two identical planning applications in respect of the open woodland from the BCS 0585 application. They attempted with these applications to basically remove much of it and instead use it for their own purposes of storing their own waste materials. As always with this company, and as already stated, as soon as they were given any planning permission, this foot in the door approach would be followed up with another application to remove constraining conditions and instead insert some other scheme, which would further play to their advantage. Having secured housing development, they then used this to suggest that a buffer zone would be needed to screen the new residents from the proposed industrial use of these two joint applications.
The loss of land proved not acceptable to Sandwell council, but the decision was not determined.
BCS 0851 Proposed erection of sixty four private residential dwellings and associated roads and footpaths at Former Coneygre Foundry, Coneygree Road Tipton.
This application followed BCS315 and BCS 585, and was an amendment to the latter reserved matters application. It was submitted just 5 months after BCS585. It was approved on 28th February 1990.
Mintworth’s developer for this site would be “Tarmac Homes”. The proposed scheme is highlighted in a report to support the application.
We learn that Mintworth acquired this site as freehold owners in 1987. The undeveloped land title for this area is now known as “Land to the North West of Coneygree Road Tipton. “
There is also further information about Mintworth themselves, and all the usual peacock strutting crap written by their consultants Parkman.
- 25 years of operation
- removing “the problems left by past uses of the site”- that is of course except their own 😆
- Their “success” is due to the “tight control of the economics of land reclamation, particularly the processing of foundry sand waste to recover metal content.”- i.e they are scrap metal tatters. 😛
- A claimed 400 acres of land being improved- though this of course would be under “Birlee Industrial Limited”
- I would not describe anything connected with Mintworth to be “quality of activity”
- The ominous statement about them acquiring more sites in need of reclamation- hence The former Duport’s tip and Tividale sewage works.
“Tarmac Homes” have left behind something a legacy themselves in the form of a convoluted trail of home builders. In transferring to other names such as “Mclean Homes” and under the titles of “JIM (insert a number of your choice) limited”- a housing estate in Walsall was for many years suspected of being built on contaminated land.
The houses in the application off Coneygree Road were built on the former foundry site itself. This map shows an overlay of where they are situated, now known as Newcomen Drive, Barney Close, and Calley Close. A further extension of this estate on top of the sports field would take place at a later date.
Former Coneygre Foundry site in bottom left from 1935, including three canal basins off the Old mainline Canal. The immaculately managed Coneygre Sports ground on the right, with Randalls bridge on far right crossing the cut.
At a later point, we see where the links to the Duport site fit in with Mintworth’s activities at Coneygre.
It was clear from correspondence to the BCDC and Sandwell council that residents in Lindley Avenue and Davis Avenue were having their properties blighted by Mintworth’s foundry sand piling. This was also creating noise nuisance as well as trespass.
Clive Dutton and others at the BCDC were thus aware of two sets of residents affected by Mintworth’s activities- activities which they as a corporate entity had sanctioned- yet apparently unable or unwilling to enforce the multiple failures on the part of the sand haulers. Here is the evidence of how residents contacted the BCDC about the blight from Mintworth’s “dust creation scheme” .
There is clear evidence here that Mintworth were breaching their licence conditions, as they were at the Duport’s Tip/Sewage works.
“Residents have informed both the council and myself that Biffa and Leigh Environmental Services have been seen tipping on the site.”
- Household waste tipped on site
- Residents privacy lost
- Mounds of soil high and increasing in height.
A memo of note around this time to Tony Rice of SMBC from Clive Dutton of BCDC is interesting in terms of both of Mintworth’s sites. Again the lack of security is noted, as are Mintworth going “flat out”. It is noted that Dutton states that “this should trigger our enforcement strategy for Coneygree. I noticed yesterday that the mound is enormous and that plant is currently operating on its summit. ” He is unsure as to whether this was freshly tipped material or that supposedly going to “rattlechain”.
It is of course worth pointing out again that the BCDC were fully complicit in creating this farce. But why the lack of enforcement procedure , or even stripping the polluters of the licence altogether? Alexander Gibb were contracted by BCDC to monitor activities at the Duport’s tip/sewage works site, yet despite reporting multiple concerns, the BCDC only ever appeared to want to request meetings with Mintworth about these breaches.
A further summary of activities on both sites is relayed to a resident by Malcolm Hinks of SMBC in the letter below of 15th February 1994. It is a useful letter in that it provides many of the unsubstantiated claims made by Frank Pomlett from his 1984 application at the site- in fact it plagiarises it almost word for word if you compare this. The planning regime on both sites is also set out up to this point.
“For reasons unknown to me Mintworth handed back the site licence (SL487) that allowed them to import foundry sand into Coneygree last year and ceased all work on site. A subsequent telephone conversation with a representative of Mintworth elicited that they had not abandoned the site and that they intend to recommence the completion of the landscape mound or submit an application for some other use similar to that proposed in the undetermined application for open storage. “
This is of course the mound with the unfixed and substantially liable limestone workings underneath it. It is worth noting that “Mintworth Limited” was dissolved in late 1993, in addition to the ludicrous “M Throwtin Limited” in September of the same year. It is also noted that a “Coneygre Properties Limited” and “The Ounsdale Estate Limited” appeared to go into voluntary liquidation at the same time, registered at the same Castle Street Tipton address as Mintworth, with the same individuals taking responsibility.
One wonders what the BCDC were actually looking at at this time. Perhaps they had sand in their eyes as to the con artistry taking shape on two large black country mounds.
What a bloody nightmare!