OPINION
There have been over the last 50 years of this rotten borough what can only be described as “beauties” in terms of the calibre of local amateur politicians- usually elected through nepotism, union position or for political block vote tokenism. Someone once described to me one particular individual from the Tipton area as “having less brains than a dog fart.” I couldn’t comment as I never had dealings with the individual, though unfortunately over the years with my campaigning for environmental and animal issues I have had the misfortune to encounter certain characters who would be more at home at a cadaver convention, falling asleep at meetings and not having a fucking clue when “chairing” meetings without a constant look to the side for someone to whisper in their ear as to what to say or do next.
Generally I don’t have time for the political class, and their company and counsel is perhaps on my not to do bucket list slightly under “gargling white phosphorus” , “voting liberal” and ” “looking for gloves” with Ian Brady on the moors”.
It is fairly clear to me that few understand the issues of pollution and the amount of history behind the story at Rattlechain, and fewer still who have bothered to put their head above the parapet and ask meaningful questions of scrutiny that put officers in environmental health and planning on the back foot, when most of the time these civil service swine are holding cock for polluters and developers.
This case from 1993 was in the thick of the swindle concerning foundry sand dumping across both the former Duport’s Tip and the Coneygree site, both being despoiled by the same individuals with “reclamation” claims for doing so. If ever there was a Perry Mason needed to expose what was going on here- dumping a waste and being paid for doing so, whilst also claiming to be preparing the land for redevelopment at which point they would get a fat wedge for the sale- but only with planning permission in place of course.
The story from the 3rd March Express and Star describes how Mintworth had built up a “mini-mountain” of foundry sand, but the councillor- one Gill Geddes– elected as a very rare Conservative in the area of Tipton Green appears vacant of the facts of the case.
The first thing to state is that Mintworth were never “contractors”. They were entirely behind the dumping of foundry sand as tatters- recovering metal from the process for their own profit, and then dumping what they did not want as payment recovered from the foundry companies who paid them to do it. They make the point clear in a desperate charm offensive when they distributed material to local residents about what would unfold- but minus the reality of dust, delays and over tipping.
The Express and Star of 3rd March 1993 is off-piste of the facts of the case, which is the turds falling out of the mouth of Geddes.
“but it is not the contractors that I blame. They are forced to dump this waste because there is no where else to take it.”
WHAT ABSOLUTE BOLLOCKS! Mintworth were not “forced” to dump this waste, they did it as their polluting business, creating nothing but “misery” at these two sites. Why should their activities supplant the quality of life for local residents? The comment by the SMBC representative is also telling in that there would be “room for the waste at rattlechain” and that activities would be “more closely monitored in future.” There was a fucking waste management licence at this site just like that at their other site that they were regularly breaching- where were the regulators and why did they not enforce the law and these licence conditions? Of course the problems only stopped when Mintworth abandoned the site without complying with any remediation of the waste mound they had left behind on top of an abandoned limestone mine!
A memo of note around this time to Tony Rice of SMBC from Clive Dutton of BCDC- an absolutely useless fucking twat held in high regard beyond belief in getting cushy civil service jobs, 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.
Geddes’s area would include the Temple Way estate at this time in the Tipton Green ward- thus shifting piles from one side of the ward to another, and no wonder voters lanced her at the first opportunity, that is if she even stood again.
“Unlimited quantities”