Sheepwash Lane landfill site licence SL434
Decision notice and conditions for planning applications DD/12405 and DD/15197 Sheepwash Lane reclamation
BACKGROUND
This request in two parts relates to the former tip which became Sheepwash Urban Park, and then subsequently Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve.
Due to the nature of the land and deposits of toxic, industrial and animal wastes, the land was unsuitable for any public use, and certainly not for housing until a programme of reclamation works were commenced in 1981 using Derelict Land Grant and Sandwell Inner area funds to create 80 acres of urban parkland. I have looked into the history of Rattlechain lagoon’s Northern Neighbour HERE.
WHAT DID WE ASK AND WHAT DID THEY KNOW?
The first request concerned the waste disposal licence granted to carry out the work.
“Please provide by electronic means the full waste disposal site licence SL 434, latterly reissued as 644/94.
Could you also provide a map of the site as it appeared and the area which it now occupies and summary of when this licence was surrendered. Could you also indicate if any additional modifications were made to the license or at the site during the life of the license in respect of additional materials that could be deposited.”
The council responded with the full original site licence SL434 and subsequent amendments.
“Please find attached a copy of the Licence to Dispose of Waste, number SL434, and subsequent notices of modification. These documents represent all the licence information held by Sandwell Council relating to the landfill site at Sheepwash Lane, Great Bridge, West Bromwich.
Please also find attached a map of the site as requested. This shows the boundary of the landfill as it is understood to be, although due to the quality of historic information there may be variations in absolute accuracy.
The plan shows the landfill boundary superimposed over present day mapping (accurate to the date of issue) and hence should provide the requested information.”
The second request related to the necessary planning permission required in conjunction with the site licence. There is little information on the council’s planning website about these, which is unusual. The council do hold planning records on microfilm for older applications, but due to the current restrictions on accessing the council house, there is no way of viewing these. We asked for the decision notices and conditions regards these applications.
“Please provide by electronic means the Decision notice and full set of associated conditions that were approved by SMBC for planning applications
(i)DD/12405 “Reclamation of derelict land by the tipping of building waste & other materials. Derelict land at Sheepwash Lane Tipton.”
(ii) DD/15197 “The reclamation of derelict land & the construction of balancing lakes including the infilling of the existing pool with inert materials to reduce water depth from 10 to 3 metres. The whole area is to be contoured and landscaped. Land off Sheepwash Lane Great Bridge, Tipton.”
“I have attached the decision notice for DD/15197 which was approved with
no conditions in October 1982. With regard to DD/12405 this application
was not determined as the proposed reclamation scheme was superseded by
the submission and subsequent grant of permission for ref: DD/15197.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
The request documents supplied by the council show that the licence was issued by West Midlands County Council on 30th September 1983, with one “Michael Jackson” being the then county waste disposal officer. Shamone. 😀
It had 2 schedules , A and B with 38 conditions in part A and 3 in part B.
As with all of the West midlands County council licences, this was not worth the paper it was printed upon due to the vagueness of materials described to be allowed to be tipped, as well as ambiguity in the wording.
Condition 2 is a prime example of this in failing to identify what the “imported fill” actually consists of, but with a reference to a description in the schedule B. It also refers to the “supplementary information document”, which is not included with the licence.
The mention of foundry sand and that containing phenol is a hideous clue as to what had already been dumped in vast quantities with gay abandon on the other side of the canal in the Brades Hall area. One can guess as to the origin. It is interesting to note that SMBC officers themselves would later be critical of foundry sands containing this substance, so why the hell their own application would recommend this is baffling.
It is even more bizarre that this condition also states “The above wastes shall not contain any hazardous quantity or concentration of poisonous , noxious or polluting substance”. Well the phenol in this allowed deposit is just exactly that!
Unfortunately, the detail in this licence which refers to the SID is missing , so we cannot evaluate what exactly was tipped and where in the conditions 5-7.
There are also references to numerous drawings and also the site licence application , which again are only referenced.
Modification 1
On November 24th 1983, condition 39 a-l was added which appear to relate to overhead powerlines again by Michael Jackson. These are technical matters related to health and safety, and it appears to me were hastily added to cover the WMCC from blame , and were an oversight in the original approved licence just 2 months earlier.
The dire placing of these powerlines across the site and in proximity to a newly sculpted pool were a major design fault with this whole scheme. I have looked at the damage that these power lines have caused to birds at this site HERE.
Sheepwash would be landscaped and eventually become a nature reserve site, a much better use for former tips than housing developments.