So not for the first time have I set out on a quest to track down dirty polluting bastards!
On this occasion, I had noticed a diesel iridescence covering a section of the River Tame through Sheepwash Nature Reserve emanating from the direction of Oldbury. There have been many issues with this river and pollution from connecting brooks and watercourses over several years. An incident in 2020 via the Brades Brook – a Severn Trent Water asset polluted the Tame via a third party. Reaction was slow to say the least and we had to get involved with physical interventions that you hope would be dealt with by people whose job it is to look for pollution and stop it. Sadly it is becoming ever more clear to me as the water grows more contaminated that the Environment Agency are not a competent authority to carry this out.
Without doubt the most frustrating part of these incidents is the total lack of response from The Environment Agency. You are invited to ring their “incident hotline number” on 0800 80 70 60 to report such pollution incidents, yet it is increasingly clear to me that this number is a massive Government fraud, as due to the unfit for purpose Common Incident Classification Scheme, which I have looked at HERE, these reports are just shut down if they are classed as being “category three”, without any attendance whatsoever from the EA. If you persist, they may attend, but don’t bank on it.
The pollution arose overnight without warning and I saw it early on. It persisted for 5 days without intervention, and in this time I made many calls to the emergency number as well as Severn Trent without any effort made by them to stop it in that time. I suspected again the source to be the Brades Brook, but STW could not reach their asset due to me not being able to give a postcode or what three words location. Wasteland does not have a postcode, and in terms of reporting a three metre location, I would have to have been in the fucking river itself.
And that dear reader is unfortunately what I had to do. Setting out at West Bromwich Street, I could see the River at its source from Oldbury running clear. At The Gower Branch canal where it runs under, I could see it polluted- this being upstream of the Brades Brook and the receptors at the nature reserve. Maybe it is the job of the professionals to therefore track it down further, but obviously this was too great a challenge for them, with me already doing their job.
On walking the course of the river, it was full of obstacles of manmade origin. More spare tyres than the Michelin man visiting Quick Fit. Assorted car parts and metal and vegetation. Probably not a very good location to get baptised.
Despite this, and walking over a mile in waders, I found the location of the pollution source of entry fairly easily. This was an outfall on the embankment, and on climbing up that, a large fairly recently built large sewer tunnel was visible. I would estimate 1990’s construction. You can half stand in it and it stretches into a void darkness on an upward gradient.
A facebook video of the find can be viewed below.
Despite relaying this to EA and STW, they still wanted postcode and W3W! So back I went with my mate and some attempt at stopping the pollution with a boom and pads. We also got their bloody exact location, that they could not be bothered to get themselves. This was clock.swing.flip.
But I wasn’t satisfied with this, as I climbed up the embankment above the sewer tunnel, and arose on what I believe to be The Monks Tip, former licensed landfill site of the criminal waste dumping company Leigh – or in this case a subsidiary “Leigh Land Reclamation Limited”. They left fuck all “reclamation”, just wasteland, like that of much of the rest in this area being former “historic landfill sites”.
It was clear that I had reached the summit behind the Balaji Temple, itself built on the former Brades Hall Farm tip of equally dubious history.
The tunnel obviously goes under the car park in this location.
What is also clear, but not as yet if the two are linked, is a construction works ongoing at this Pankot Palace to build some type of dining hall. This was granted permission by Sandwell Council under auspices DC_23_68691.
On site is A and H construction.
Waste arisings, (from the former historic landfill site) 😮 are being taken up hill and deposited on what is claimed to be land owned by the Temple, immediately behind where I arrived up the embankment. 😎 I do hope that landfill tax assessments have been made, and that this is not a way of ensuring off site disposal costs can be slashed whilst avoiding a waste management licence. 😮 Apparently, this is going to become a FAITH HILL.
Faith Hill- There you’ll be. LOL
I have already expressed my concerns about this sprawling site which is now far removed from being a “Temple”, but is a separatist “5 minute city” set aside for just one religion and for which Sandwell council grants permission for the block vote that comes with it with increasing ease. The planning policy unit even holds its events here to plot more destruction of the green space such as cum rags like the Dudley port Supplementary planning document. The mini town has its own food store and houses for “visiting priests” set aside in a private road. Just how this can be confirmed by SMBC, and why it should be the case that in a “housing crisis” where land is in alleged short supply and on “brownfield land” this can happen. It is beyond me, but then again, some people have preference over others don’t they?
This was England
All I will say is, that I will be keeping a very close eye on this site in the coming weeks to make sure that there are no more snake surprises, and may karma come to those who pollute our waterways.
As for Severn Trent, customer services claimed that I would get an update on what they found within 48 hours, as did a supervisor. That deadline has passed and I am still in the dark as to what if anything they did or traced. Would it be covered up if for some reason religion came into the picture? This is what this foul company had to say on the recent planning consultation as a statutory consultee. Oh dear, may be a bit embarrassing for them.
DC_23_68691-SEVERN_TRENT_WATER_COMMENTS-1302954
As for the EA, I have asked them to look at the waste tipping scenario going on at this site, as well as future monitoring of what is a DOOMED polluted River which is not acceptable. A very timely piece following an FOI request by GreenPeace has shown what I have been saying for a very long time about the EA and their responses to these incidents, as well as the useless Common incident classification scheme and its categories. It is therefore not just myself that is calling this out.
“It found that the regulator has failed to meet its own response time targets for around three-quarters of England’s worst pollution incidents, which include major sewage, oil and slurry spills.”
Someone wrote this above one of their signs on the nature reserve, and it was not me. The sentiments however are fully supported by this website.
