An advert from the Birmingham Post 1977. “Foundry and steelworks waste disposal specialist” LOL “All types of waste.” Double LOL. “UNLIMITED QUANTITY.” Triple LOL
Some people have absolutely no shame, no concern for the “misery” that they inflict on others with their actions of avarice, and are too conceited to even have their actions questioned or put under scrutiny because they believe themselves entitled and above the law because they find loopholes to exploit the weaknesses within it for all that they are worth.
I have no time for multinational global scum like those in the chemical industry who dumped and poisoned birds like Albright and Wilson/Rhodia and whose staff are compulsive odious liars who do not like to be “caught out”. But there are others like the conman, fraudster and criminal Sydney Sheldon who made much out of the remnants of post war industrialism by flogging off holes to be filled with waste demolition crap, and in particular foundry sand.
This material is shite. It was used as a filler because the industry that produced it wanted to offload their crap in huge amounts. So enter the goffer tatters with a tipper from the 1960’s who suddenly become fake “reclamation” experts and you see how organised fly tipping of an unwanted material with the auspices of a waste management licence made some entrepreneurs very rich men.
In a report written in 1978 as part of a structure plan for the county, it is revealed that the West Midlands area covered 89,000 hectares (22,000 acres), with approximately 9,000 industrial manufacturing companies. It notes “Many of these industrial processes, such as chemical and metal finishing, give rise to a wide range of wastes, which include highly toxic materials.”
It estimated from the survey that the West Midlands industry produced approximately 2,500,000 tonnes of waste! Of this some 480,000 tonnes were “hazardous wastes. “
The largest amount of waste it notes came from the Sandwell area in the form of foundry sand being produced from the manufacture of castings and slags from iron and steel production.
Birlee Industrial, fronted by John Stewart Hurst and Frank Ewart Pomlett were prominent in dumping this material in “unlimited quantities” as per the Birlee Industrial advert.
They occupied multiple areas- Birchfield Lane, Dudley Port, Coneygree Road and then more latterly Phoenix House in the aptly named CASTLE Street, and dumped in multiple sites and connections to these sites which I have looked at previously at Coneygree and of course the Duport’s Tip. But there are others, and one of interest that I will examine here. Obviously, “no valley was too deep or no mountain too high” for these clowns.
BUSTLEHOLME QUARRY
1977 Credit Black Country History in photos facebook
This site located in West Bromwich near to Walsall Road in Stone Cross and off Bustleholme Lane was a prior tipping point to their endeavours at Duport’s and Coneygree. Originally this appears to have been a sand quarry.
There is a little pre history to this dumping which I have found in The British Newspaper archive, and once again local residents were not happy with what took place or was planned to. The Sandwell Evening Mail of 26th April 1976 kicks us off.
RUBBISH!
This article explains the lie of the land as it then stood. The owners of the quarry were an outfit called “MIDLAND MOTOR CYCLE CYLINDER CO. LTD” supposedly based in Smethwick. One of the things you have to be careful of with the foundry sand dumpers was their love of phoenix company proxy shams and multiple “companies” under different names. I do not know what relationship existed between Birlee Industrial and this one, but maybe the bike bandits answered the ad at the top of the page? 😆
Of course we were now officially into the era of the useless West Midlands County Council and the Control of Pollution Act which saw the issuing of vaguely worded licences with an SL prefix headed by the moron Ken Harvey as County Waste Disposal officer.
The local residents fear what is to come- and so they should have in their comfortable but modest homes in which some had lived in throughout the Second World War. Quite frankly from what I have been told, I would have preferred to take my chances with the blitz to a latter day yellow digger down my way owned by Messrs Pomlett and Hurst. 😆 The craters alone from bomb placement would probably have been less damaging.
The loss of green space was even then worrying to them- well try seeing what is left now poor dears!
Of course the WMCC said “yes” to this, passing a site licence that would be titled SL88.
It was mentioned at the 20th October 1977 meeting of the waste disposal and pollution control committee and one of 35 sites that had been issued a licence at that point. I am a little suspicious of “BIR metals” as well to be honest.
We turn to our old friend showing multiple site licences for more info, (scroll down to cell number 9049).
Processed-historic-landfill-sites-1
Records show that this licence was issued on 15/2/1977, and that the first input of waste stated as being delivered on 28/ 2/1977.
Such waste disposal licences required a planning application by law to accompany them, and whilst I do not know if one was actually issued at this time, with waste already being dumped and moved around, as per the photo at the top of the page, it appears that the operation continued for some time before the end purpose was addressed.
According to Sandwell Council’s planning website, the following application DC14000 “Regrading and recontouring with erection of houses” was submitted on 11th September 1981.
Obviously for whatever reason this decision was not reached quickly. By 1982 as reported in 21st May Sandwell Evening Mail we see the process still ongoing and the fury of local residents who claim they had been conned by the sand men from Tipton.
Unfortunately, the political stunt of a “public meeting” was another charade by those in Sandwell council, belated playing to the gallery with the decision already having been in the bag from day one. The “skyscraper flats” referred to are still there, but now in garish multicoloured flavours that look terrible. The loss of open space so Cllr Bill Melia claimed had been promised to be left when the infilling was complete, but I think that you would have to be very naive to believe a couple of blokes with a tipper truck and a broad smile on a promise. 😳
A subsequent article in the same paper dated 29th June 1982 promised a “showdown” with council officers and planners and the aggrieved residents. The plan to build 60 homes on the 15 acre former void would be “thrashed out”. In reality of course, the locals would get fuck all say.
And sure enough, the publicity stunt meeting appeared to be advertised in the Evening Mail of July 14th stating that the application had been deferred at the planning meeting held in May.
The following month the can was kicked down the road again, or maybe the desert highway when it was stated that the planning meeting would give residents another say to reject the proposals. The 24th August Mail repeated the earlier comments of local councillors after votes and stated that the unanimous opposition to the homes scheme but that Birlee were now claiming that the majority of the site would remain “open space”. We would hear that one again elsewhere with the schemers behind this! They also use the tool of emotional blackmail stating that fly-tipping would occur if approval was not given. They would use this technique as well in the future, despite abandoning land and leaving it in a derelict state after “regrading and recontouring”- basically a ploy to dump more foundry sand and shift the piles around.
After the planning meeting the 26 August 1982, the paper reported that another gaslighting technique would be used- the full council vote, enabling those in planning to escape making a decision themselves. As for the site being left as “an eyesore” I do not know what fucking cheek these conmen were peddling here given their repeated method of doing just that. I have no doubt that promises were made to leave it as open space, but that was never the intention- just a foot in the door to avoid opposition at that time to tipping.
And so to the inevitable kick in the teeth. After the full council meeting procrastination the 13th October Mail reported on the council sell out. You do not have to be a genius to see how “The scheme was pushed through by council’s controlling Labour group.” to see how this corrupt party have done the same multiple times in this rotten borough for the last 50 years, ignoring petitions, their own “consultations” and sometimes even their own officers in the pursuit of rampant house building on green space. .
What happened next is a mystery to me as it appears that this outline application, and see above, was not decided until 2nd December 1985 according to the decision notice! The last claimed input of waste at the site is stated to be 1/4/1985- meaning that tipping had been continuing throughout the spun out planning homes saga- for a total of 8 years since the licence had been approved. This technique of playing for time with bullshit excuses and new proposals would become the standard MO of Pomlett and Hurst and their associate companies.
The approval listed just three standard conditions without mentioning anything about the open space.
I submitted an FOI request to Sandwell Council requesting the site licence and the area on a map that it occupied.
The council responded which can be viewed HERE.
The site licence has several interesting jig-saw pieces that explain some of the issues mentioned above, and also raise further questions.
This licence confirms the correct date of issue of 15th February 1977, and bears the signature of the idiot Harvey. However despite being issued to the motor cycle outfit from Smethwick, it also has a stamp confirming transfer to Birlee Industrial on 22/6/1981, thus prior to the planning application. Birlee were obviously doing a job for the land owner company as they had at Duport’s Tip, but then acquired it for further gain.
This licence had 36 conditions, and I will highlight the most important ones starting with what was allowed to be deposited.
660, maybe they should have allowed another 6 to be generous 😈 were allowed to be dumped in the form of “foundry sand”, “foundry slags” and more concerningly “general rubbish”. You can see from such a vague description as to why these licences today cause problems , no less than the putrescible waste that was dumped at Duport’s tip that evolved landfill gas! Harvey’s WMCC was an utter joke with “control” of pollution and they did not control anything.
Most of the conditions are the standard fair that were duplicated on most of the licences such as hours of operation, and maintaining tidy conditions. There were however phased areas within the site which are shown in the drawing further on.
Condition 15 is where this gets interesting in terms of what I believe the local residents and councillors were talking about and the green space left at the end
Condition 27 is very interesting given the tatters and their metal reclamation from the foundry!
The final condition is that the licence was to be cancelled by 31/3/1982 with no more tipping.
I have scanned the plan below and compare this to the site photo taken in the same year when operations were clearly in progress. NB the photo is turned upside down to match the plan with the border with Walsall Road at the top.
The council did not provide a plan of the licence in the current area but did show another plan of the site in drawing form.
NB This is upside down but I have corrected it below to compare with the map on the council website for DC/14000 area.
The licence confirms that two amendments were made to the licence, with the first being a time extension- something that would be frequently repeated with sites in the ownership of those in question. The new deadline issued to Birleee who had by this time assumed the licence was extended to October 31st 1982 by virtue of deleting condition 36 and replacing it with condition 37 bearing the new deadline.
The now replaced and deceased Ken Harvey was succeeded by the calamitously named Michael Jackson!
Note the Coneygre address
And shamone MF, Jackson would again fuck the community over by deleting this condition in the subsequent amendment deleting condition 37 on 15th March 1983– thus giving no end date at all for the boys from the sand stuff to end their tipping free for all!
One can see from this that this bungling waste of space authority were adapt at screwing people over in favour of continued pollution.
The licence at this site would not be surrendered until 31/12/1994, by which time Birlee Industrial had long morphed into the Mintworth brand
The houses built were perhaps the ironically named “Whitworth Drive” with a silent “s”, comprising 1-59 and 2-60. At the top of the square former quarry, some space was left as green space in a similar way to the Duport’s tip. This has since been called “Hayward’s nature area” and I did have to smile when I saw this sign prominently located on part of it. Remember the Birlee claims? 😛
Looks like a bit of sandy dust has blown onto it. LOL!
Cleaner one
Whitworth Drive, built on foundry sand dumping
THE OTHER SAND HOLES
It is interesting to see the cross over periods of dumping between these sites preceding or that were concurrent with the dire events at Duport’s and Coneygree.
Other sites having the Birlee touch and sometimes Mintworth glow are
OUNSDALE QUARRY
(Listed as Mintworth limited)
Licence number listed as 6/A/80/0172, B06, 9999/9737
South Staffordshire county council
Licence issued 16/2/1977
First input listed 31/1/1969
Last input not listed
Licence surrender 27/3/1991
QUARRY ROAD
Quarry Road, Dudley Wood, Cradley Heath, West Midlands
Listed as “Birlee Industries Ltd”
Licence SL236
Licence issued 28/2/1978
First input of waste 07/05/1978
Last input of waste 31/01/1980
No info regards licence surrender
BLOOMFIELD ROAD AJ MUCKLOWS SITE
Birlee Industrial Limited
Site Licence SL301
LICENCE ISSUED SURRENDERED FIRST INPUT LAST INPUT
| 13/11/1979 | 30/04/1994 | 31/12/1979 | 31/12/1984 |
HUNTINGTON FARM MUCH WENLOCK
Huntington Farm, Limekiln Lane, New Works Lane, Little Wenlock, Telford, Shropshire
Licence issued licence surrender First waste input
| 17/2/1978 | 31/7/1980 | 31/12/1969 |
As part of a planning application for the coneygree site, we get a precis of the activities of Birlee at Bustleholme but now assuming the name “Mintworth”, as though the newer concept was not distinct from the older version.
“The key to the success of Mintworth Limited has been tight control of the economics of land reclamation, in particular the processing of foundry sand waste to recover metal content and the haulage and controlled placing of inert fill by-products from the processing.”
In other words “tatting for metal” and dumping the rest in holes
“THEY DID WANT THEY WANT, AND THEY DID IT WITH PRIDE”