I think most people living next to a Control of Substances Hazardous to Health site, such as the Solvay plant in Langley, would like to know what those substances are, but why are Sandwell Council making this information difficult for people to access?
There is a major problem with Sandwell Council’s planning department in the way in which they are working for applicants and NOT for the public.
Many examples have come to light about officers scheming with developers who just happen to be party political donors, and also the scandal of land sales by a councillor on a committee to do so which benefitted his developer son- who also worked in the planning department at SMBC!
I have already given examples of my experiences with them in the form of the CCTV permissions at Rattlechain, and with the Gower Tip fiasco, and now I have found more evidence of applications which Solvay put in regards Hazardous Substance consents, (dangerous and flammable chemicals they can store and handle on site), which had reportedly been shelved, yet it now emerges that HS/040 was given consent in 2020. 👿
The history of this application is as follows. I have now also added a page to the list of HSC’s already put in the public domain on this website. THIS INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT FOR ANYONE LIVING IN THE AREA TO KNOW, BUT SANDWELL COUNCIL FOR WHATEVER REASONS KNOWN UNTO ITSELF APPEARS TO WANT TO HIDE IT FROM PUBLIC VIEW.
I first mentioned this consent application after being contacted by a concerned resident of Langley in August 2018.
You can read about this in THIS POST.
I mentioned here that Sandwell council had deliberately removed all mention of detail of the hazardous substance consents at Trinity Street, as well as giving little information about this latest application. The only opinion I can form from the removal of this key information that was once there is that whoever instructed this or did this is a bent officer or a shill of this company. This is not an oversight, or anything else, it was an intentional and calculated obfuscation of information, and there is no valid reason in the public interest as to why it was done. Obviously, what is in Solvay’s interest is obviously more important to Sandwell Planning.
I contacted Alison Bishop- yes her again, in the email below dated 27th July 2018. Needless to say, that like all the other attempts to contact this woman, she has to be reminded several times , or does not even have the courtesy to reply at all- as was the case here. I followed this up with the listed case officer Dean Leadon- and got no response either, only to be told at a later date, that he had left the authority. His name is still listed as the case officer on the application on the council website however.
With little time to object, the list of documents suddenly appeared on the council website. Ignore the first two, which I will talk about later. You can see they were uploaded in bulk and the date given is 26th July 2018. This was just one day before I had emailed Bishop.
I objected to this scheme, which can be read in the PDF below.
After this, I emailed again asking for updates, and received absolutely nothing from the planning department.
I put in two freedom of information requests in early 2019 to The Environment Agency , and to The HSE.
The EA replied claiming that they had had no communication with the council- astounding given that they had been involved with the investigation into the fire and other matters at this site.
The HSE replied that in one document supplied, it could take them up to 26 weeks to respond as the application was being considered by a specialist unit due to the uncertainty of the situation. This consisted of Email dated 17/8/2018 from Sandwell Council to HSE containing revised Application form and Email dated 21st August 2018 to Sandwell Council with HSE attachment Holding Letter.
I received no further updates from Sandwell council on this matter. The HSE comments have clearly NOT been uploaded to the SMBC website, and so we get the 17 MONTH GAP between talk of pipework, the reworded application, and then it being finally passed under delegated authority nearly a year later on 2nd October 2020.
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE? AND OH THE IRONY OF LOCKING PEOPLE AWAY IN THEIR HOMES UNDER A “PANDEMIC” WHEN A FAR GREATER CHEMICAL RISK AWAITS ON THEIR DOORSTEP. OPEN THE WINDOWS AS WAS ADVISED BY HEALTH LIARS, AND YOU MIGHT BREATHE SOMETHING IN THAT REALLY DOES DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH FFS!
There is too much going on out of the public eye between these SMBC planning officers and other agencies and the applicants. They appear to be pissing in the same pot, and it just will not do when it comes to compromising people’s safety and not allowing a chance to question decisions or examine the applications in a fair manner. They are covering up documents out of public view, and this is deliberate.
But it seems that another application was also put in unbeknown to me tabled HS/041 in June 2021 . This too is a devious application which hides new chemicals being added to the list which were previously not registered as Hazardous substances on the site. I have also looked at the details of this application and the chemicals involved ON THIS PAGE.
Something very odd appears to occur when planning applications are put in to Oldbury. I think there is a case that Sandwell council should be renamed
“The Spoon Council”.
In fact, I think that the sculpture below would look just spiffing in Freeth Street, right outside The Oldbury Kremlin.