Just about the single best event of the Blair Government was The Freedom of Information Act 2000. If it wasn’t for this we would certainly be in the dark about a great deal about what has transpired at Rattlechain lagoon, and also it is unlikely that this blog would even exist.
We have learned about Albright and Wilson’s past activities, their wartime endeavours, Rhodia’s plans, Environment Agency inaction, and above all how multiple agencies appear to have conspired to try to cover up what was going on at this controversial site.
There are many others from environmental campaigning backgrounds who use the Act to try to examine what is put out into the media arena for public consumption, but more importantly they realise that much of this is only what the communications industry want people to know. The rest will be buried, and FOI is usually the only way to open the draws of an authority and have a good rummage around to find something useful, and what fun it is to fiddle them.
One particular request on the anvil has been going on now for some years. This deals with the fire that occurred at Rhodia’s Trinity Street site in January 2009. Since then they have even changed name to Solvay. As this incident was related to white phosphorus and its breakdown products, it has been something that we want to know about and look at more closely- particularly the impact that the chemicals released may have had on the environment.
SOURCE
The quest to discover the report into this , and subsequent lessons learned has now led to six requests to The Health and Safety Executive, the authority responsible in the UK for investigating industrial incidents such as this that impact on employees and the public.
This week we got a reply to request number 6, which revealed that they still have not got around to making any decision as to whether to prosecute the company, though they have after over 5 years now completed their investigation. Once again we will have to submit another request in a few months time, but perhaps by then we will know a little more.
The truth is certainly out there, and we will in the course of time get there in the end.