Scooby didn’t plan on finding capt. poison whilst searching for snacks on the North embankment!
“Trying to steal my bottles of rum, Keep out yer blighter!”
“This will ward off those bunting tossers!”
“you pesky kids!”
“Now let’s see who’s glowing phosphorus face redbeard really is….”
“DANGER KEEP OUT”
Back in March, I reported on the mysterious case of additional cameras and pole mounts appearing at Rattlechain lagoon, which had actually been erected last year and also a query put to Sandwell council about this and if any planning permission was required.
It subsequently transpired from the reply from SMBC that planning permission WOULD be required for additional cameras to the application originally submitted in 2010 of the single pole based camera covering the front entrance and supposedly the whole pool.
“permission would be required for any additional pole mounted cctv on the site”
The planning application in 2010 was reference DC/10/51860 (Proposed construction of a 10m high column equipped with a CCTV camera).
This ONLY gave permission for one camera, at the main entrance, with no night vision and requirement that local residents in neighbouring houses were screened from any Trinity Street peeping Toms,(or circumstances to that effect).
Since this march post, and if you will excuse the pun, there have been some developments on these particular unauthorised erections.
I did indeed complete the attached enforcement form and this was then left in the council’s hands for action. Unfortunately it appeared to me for some time that those hands weren’t exactly taking any and had gone rather limp in response. Chasing this I then received the following confirmation from the SMBC planner in May.
“In the first instance I have reviewed the regulations for permitted development rights in relation to CCTV equipment and the camera does require permission as was the case in 2010, Solvay have been made aware of this and I have chased for an application to be submitted as soon as possible. Clearly we will review in more detail its location and where the camera is directed to ensure that the privacy of residents is not compromised. On speaking with Solvay, they stated that the camera was erected due to the break-ins on site and concerns about the risk to individuals.“
Having not had any confirmation of any application I followed this up again receiving the following.
“I apologise for not responding, I did contact Rhodia/Solvay back in May and they confirmed that they would submit an application. However as you state sometime has elapsed and still no application. Therefore I have now written a formal letter stating that the lighting columns require permission and if an application is not submitted by the end of August, then enforcement proceedings will be instigated.”
One can see from this how Rhodia operate. They avoided not only making an application but also depriving the much “cash strapped” Sandwell council of a planning fee for the application. 😳
But let’s be clear here, their oversight, subsequent ignorance and now the retrospective planning application itself are all designed to try to disguise the contents of their still “hazardous waste area” site and the still current waste management licence governing the established use of this former clay pit.
THE RETROSPECTIVE APPLICATION.
Three documents were submitted with the application which has been given reference number DC/17/60912 .
First to note about this application is the invalid plan of the current site. For some reason Rhodia or their agents have used the plan of the site as it stood in 1975, BEFORE the stopping up of the right of way RP97 in John’s Lane! The Albright and Wilson site was reduced in size as a result of this land sale to the reckless dumpers of Duport Properties Limited.
Are they just stupid, and are they that unaware of this area that they have submitted a wrong plan, or is there something more cunning afoot here? SEE BELOW
DC_17_60912-PROPOSED_LAYOUT_PLAN-908949
Their current site boundary is of course the one below, which they actually submitted in the 2010 application, and which identifies the area as having 5.76 hectares– note this important figure for later on.
DC_10_51860-PLAN_OF_RATTLECHAIN_MERE__A3_-406754
It could be argued that they are trying to project to anyone who doesn’t know the site- ie Sandwell council planners , that the cctv posts are well away from the current public footpath and so are well contained within the site. We also get the return of the ludicrous “rattlechain mere”– this is the deception that was being used by the likes of Tom Dutton and works managers in the early 2000’s when they were trying to claim that their hazardous waste landfill tip and its contents was not responsible for birds being poisoned there.
Of note in the drawings and positions of the pole cameras are
“4m HIGH POSTS 2 FIXED CAMERAS PER POST 1 POST C/W SPEAKER CAMERAS – 720TVL PICADIS VARI-FOCAL IR BULLET TYPE CONTROLLED BY 24hr SURVEILLANCE BY ROBOWATCH”
“Good morning campers, Hi di Hi!”
“EXISTING 10m HIGH POST AS PER PLANNING PERMISSION 2010 DC/10/51860 3 ADDITIONAL FIXED NON PIVOTAL CAMERAS IR ZOOM LENSES TO PROTECT PRIVACY OF NEARBY RESIDENTS SCREENS HAVE BEEN ELECTRONICALLY BLANKED OUT.”
I’m not sure that this is English, yet it appears to be suggesting that the cameras have been “electronically blanked out”. WELL WHAT DOES THAT MEAN EXACTLY? IS ANYONE ABLE TO REMOVE SUCH SAFEGUARDS AT SOME POINT AND HOW?- IN THE INTERESTS OF PROTECTING NEARBY RESIDENTS PRIVACY?
The application form itself can be read below.
DC_17_60912-APPLICATION_FOR_PLANNING_PERMISSION-908934
There are numerous questions and statements made in here some of which are just not true or accurate, just like the invalid plan submitted of the site.
We get confirmation of what we already know concerning the two erections on the North embankment which are 80 metres apart and that this work commenced on 27th July 2016 being completed on 8th November 2016.
The most interesting thing about this is not the reason why there was considered a need for these extra cameras, but the complete lack of mention of the site’s dangerous contents which are of course the real reason for their erection.
“Following on from civil’s works at Rattlechain it was found that persistent intruders were entered the site by cutting through the North boundary fence followed by digging into the North bank slopes in the search for collectable bottles.
The excavations into the banks were quite severe with concerns that intruders could have caused death/ serious injury to themselves or for the newly formed banks to have slipped causing extensive damage.”
Firstly the supposition that anyone has entered the site digging for bottles is just that- where is the evidence?
I noted these diggings some time back, actually believing that Rhodia or their contractors had made them, especially given that they coincided with the area of the former gulley where the old discharge pipe that was used to tip waste from the Matty canal boats was located. One would expect this area to have been more heavily contaminated on this embankment, and so may well be tested to determine the extent of white phosphorus/phosphine being present in the soil/embankment after it had been covered.
It seems highly unlikely if you read ERM’s appraisal of the embankment works that any slippage would occur from such diggings, so we are left with the final statement which is of note. Undoubtedly Rhodia are fully aware that intruders could cause “death/serious injury to themselves”, not as a result of falling from what is a fairly typical embankment in this area, but as a consequence of the nature of material present in the embankment and still contained within the lagoon itself.
Perhaps if they were clear and were not desperately trying to conceal this, then one could have more sympathy for this application, but as it is this is just another in a long line to which I have become an expert in unravelling the Trinity Street liars real motives.
The site address is given as the ludicrous “rattlechain mere.” I thought this had been dropped some time around a decade ago, but obviously they are trying to create images of disassociation away from the rattlechain tip/lagoon toxic association. Of course they attempt to do so in vain.
“description
“open area of natural habitat surrounding a small lake at the end of John’s Lane.” 😆
ABSOLUTELY BLOODY LAUGHABLE NONSENSE! I DON’T THINK EVEN BARRATT HOMES DESCRIBED IT IN SUCH ELOQUENCE WHEN PEOPLE WERE PARTING WITH THEIR MONEY ON THE FORMER SEWAGE WORKS SITE AND THEN FOUND OUT THE TRUTH AS TO WHAT THEY HAD REALLY MOVED NEXT TO.
THE REAL DESCRIPTION- AS DISPLAYED BY RHODIA LIMITED IN SEVERAL PLACES AROUND THE SITE PERIMETER.
Confirmation of the camera specifications and also the invalid plan of the site that they submitted with it.
Rhodia claim that “the site is no longer used”. This in terms of them depositing any further toxic waste may be true, but it remains “in use” in that the licence governing the site has not been surrendered. It has not been surrendered because Rhodia would have to demonstrate that the site poses no future risk to anyone in the area. THEY HAVE NOT DONE THIS.
IT STILL IS AND DOES CONTAIN HAZARDOUS WASTE CHEMICALS!
How is it possible that Rhodia can lie about the site not being land which is known to be contaminated?
How is it possible that Rhodia can lie about contamination being suspected for all or part of the site?
THE WHOLE SITE IS…….
Just for clarity , here is what was stated in the 2010 application.
“isolated” and “the nature of the waste materials” YES It sensible to install a camera but it not sensible to have dumped the waste there in the first place.
OF COURSE THIS QUESTION IS ALSO QUITE IRONIC, GIVEN THE LOCATION.
The declaration confirms that Rhodia knowingly have submitted false and misleading information with this application.
It is quite bizarre that the cheeky buggers have in the camera details even lifted pictures off this website to demonstrate what the cameras and posts look like during their construction! These of course were used to demonstrate how they had failed to submit an application to start with!
DC_17_60912-CAMERA_DETAILS-910490
Well two can play at that game. Here are some direct quotes from their propaganda website, set up after this one to try to counter some of the truths about what was really buried at their site, and what still remains there.
“Please note that the Rattlechain Lagoon is a hazardous waste landfill site with an open body of water. For your own safety and that of others we urge you not to try to gain unauthorised access to the site at any time. The site is surrounded by a metal fence, monitored by CCTV and regularly inspected by a security contractor in order that we can ensure the site remains safe and secure. In an emergency, or if you see any suspicious behaviour, please contact 0121 541 3314 or the Police.”
So just to recap, Rhodia on their own website tell us exactly what the site really is and that it is ALREADY
“Please note that the Rattlechain Lagoon is a hazardous waste landfill site with an open body of water. For your own safety and that of others we urge you not to try to gain unauthorised access to the site at any time. The site is surrounded by a metal fence, monitored by CCTV….”
One must also ask the question if they were concerned about trespass from the North embankment, then why the additional cameras needed at the south of the site, right next to people’s homes?
“The future
“The lagoon will remain a hazardous waste site, will remain closed to any further waste and will still be covered by an Environmental Permit. The Permit has however been varied so as to acknowledge that no new waste is being introduced to the site. This Permit will remain in place and will be enforced by the Environment Agency for the foreseeable future.”
YOU CAN COMMENT ON THIS APPLICATION BY USING SANDWELL COUNCIL’S PLANNING PORTAL. DC/17/60912.
One of the main focusses of this website was to assimilate all the recorded history of the site into one place. The canal traffic waste transportation of the white phosphorus contaminated material- i.e the stuff that poisoned the birds that was dumped into the lagoon, was one such jigsaw piece. It was previously stated in some books and by those at Trinity Street, that this traffic ended in 1969/70- but as evidenced by Roy Martin’s pictures and write up that is not the case at all. Another perspective of this traffic and the lagoon was written by Malcom Edge.
I am delighted that I have recently made contact with David Wilson, a local photographer who had the wisdom to capture some rare images of this traffic near its demise, and also he agreed to write a few words to accompany his pictures, which have previously been printed in some local history books. It is with great pleasure that he allowed me to reproduce them on this website. Hopefully they will leave with the other recollections, a timely reminder as to “what lies beneath rattlechain lagoon”- and it’s certainly not “toothpaste”!
I’ve archived a short version of David’s memory with the other recollections HERE, and it corroborates that in 1971, Albright and Wilson were still using Alfred Matty to transport their waste to rattlechain. I’d also like to thank David’s son Mark for his enthusiasm and help and also local historian Keith Hodgkins who archived some of David’s pictures.
I’ve also expanded some of the pictures to highlight some interesting observations.
By David Wilson, and forward by Mark Wilson
David Wilson is a canal enthusiast and amateur photographer. In the 1960s and 1970s he recorded much local commercial canal traffic, including some of the workings between Albright & Wilson and the Rattlechain Lagoon or Brickworks. He has had many of his photographs reproduced in several publications concerning local railway, road and canal traffic. He is local to the area, having grown up in Greets Green, West Bromwich. In addition, he has lived in Horseley Heath, Tipton, since 1966. He records his observations below.
“During the late 1960s & early 1970s, I witnessed the late stages of commercial canal traffic, in the West Midlands. The main regular traffic, was, gas oil from the various gas works (Walsall, Swan Village) to Oldbury. This was undertaken by “Clayton’s of Oldbury” in flush decked craft. I believe this traffic ceased around 1968.
The other regular traffic was phosphorous waste, taken from Albright & Wilson, in Oldbury, to a disposal site near Dudley Port. The boats used for this operation were owned by “Alfred Matty”, who were based at Coseley. The waste was in liquid form, and I seem to recall this waste had a distinctive odour, which reminded me of the smell at the swimming baths. The boats bore the greenish stains, and the cargo (to me) seemed hazardous. The phosphorous waste material, when at its destination, was to be then pumped into the marlhole.
1965, Matty boat descending the Brades Locks en- route to discharge hazardous cargo at rattlechain lagoon. Note the rattlechain brickworks buildings and stack still in evidence to the top left of the picture. Also the staining of chemicals on the boat as David describes. Picture Copyright David Wilson, reproduced with permission.
Enlargement showing The Ocker Hill Cooling towers
Enlargement showing three key structures. 1 the new brickworks pit that would become “the duport’s tip filled with waste from the Vono company and other illicit materials. 2 The rattlechain brickworks building still in situ. 3 a building that would be the last remnant of these works and is visible in a picture I have seen in 1973 when tipping at this site was in evidence. By then the brickworks themselves had vanished.
A brick structure housed the pumping equipment, pipes were connected from the boats, then it was discharged into the marlhole below. This marlhole was the one known locally as ‘Rattlechain Lagoon’. I also remember that the water in the marlhole was a duck egg green/blue colour. This, to my knowledge, was the only disposal site. “
1971, matty boat heading in the direction of Oldbury. Note the pumphouse building David refers to on the right of the picture on the towpath just partially in shot. Picture Copyright David Wilson, reproduced with permission.
The Albright and Wilson pumphouse
One of David’s pictures dated 1971 showing a Matty boat heading back towards the direction of Oldbury. Had it just turned around at the Netherton branch or was it heading to Albright and Wilson from their Coseley base? Picture Copyright David Wilson, reproduced with permission.
1965 . A Matty boat called “the Maurine” towing another boat behind in the direction of Brades Locks. This area behind is Albright and Wilson’s Gower Tip. Copyright David Wilson , reproduced with permission.
It is very likely that the boat operator lost in the fumes of the boat is Enoch Clowes, who nearly died from passing out from the fumes when discharging the chemical waste from the Matty boat into Rattlechain- and left us the epitaph describing it as “a place in which nothing could live.”
One has to say that it is with great relief that phosphorus is no longer carried in this manner, and that lack of personal protective measures do not show that the cargo being carried was “safe”, more that the carriers and the company paying them were foolhardy.
Once again many thanks to David, Mark and Keith.
Last week local environmental campaigners including myself organised a public event in Tividale concerning the so called “garden city” proposals (“The Dudley Port Supplementary Planning document” DPSPD) – part of which attempt to promote “allocated” housing sites in the vicinity of toxic contaminated land.
To view this click below.
This area has on its doorstep an area that was also once “a tip” that someone had the vision to reclaim into an “urban park” which later became a local nature reserve. The strangely named “Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve.” There are no sheep here, though the name supposedly derives from when sheep were.
What there is here is an existing haven for wildlife, which although not perfect largely due to Sandwell council’s lack of care and management does at least have potential to be a first class area for nature. This is entirely dependent on its surroundings not being built on and nature corridors along the canal network and surrounding open spaces severed by housing and human intervention. It is this aspect that those intent on making money can never see.
The event was well attended and local residents in the area, some old and some new told us their stories of what had transpired in the early 1980’s and throughout the 1990’s. We were told about
We were also provided with some photographic evidence concerning large areas of water on the former Duport’s tip site and surrounding land that had accumulated in the vicinity of the then recently built “Charter Homes” estate- incorporating Law Close. One could date the photographs from the iconic gas cooling towers still visible at Ocker Hill in the distance, which were demolished in 1984, as well as the gas tower at Swan village and Ryder house in Whitgreave Street- also both blown up in the early 2000’s.
The landscape appears barren with rubbish blowing all around. It is also clear from these pictures, (estimated taken in 1982), about the then existing height of the tipped foundry sand. I was already aware from an Environment Agency contact that the original levels were supposedly that of the existing sewage works, but this appears to be the proof of that. The Albright and Wilson panelled fencing forming a border between the two sites is visible, and clearly below the height of the top of the then base. The height of the current mound connected to the now replaced Rhodia metal fence on this side of rattlechain lagoon is now several metres above.
View of the mound today several metres above Rhodia fenceline
A flimsy wooden fence with broken gaps visibly present is all that divided the tip operating under the auspices of what by then would have been waste management licence SL129, from the houses. This remains the case even today in the same area.
We also saw a more recent picture of the French drain being constructed around the site, plastic sheeting taped off with red and white flicker tape. This I am aware from correspondence would date to around the end of the 1990’s.
Politically this is a potential hot potato. It was interesting to see both Green party and UKIP representatives at the event sharing a common goal in tackling an issue of local concern. I would like to thank both of these parties for attending the event, whilst also stressing that this blog writer is a member of neither though has sympathies with both. It is I believe possible to achieve a balanced perspective on a range of issues.
Information and the accessibility of it and the then inaccessibility of information was one of the driving factors of setting up this website. Things were hidden away in drawers and gathering dust in boxes. Stories and anecdotes remained scattered , and the history had largely been written by people sympathetic to a polluting and deceitful industry. Those balances have hopefully now been corrected.
One should also be careful of the veneer of respectability attached to science, and especially the concept of paid science for hire via the so called “environmental consultant” industry, who are really development opportunity facilitators. We were told many things by scientists regarding the safety of the lagoon and about “toothpaste” when we started to ask questions about bird deaths at the site. One should question how scientists at Trinity Street were able to put a lid on their toxic waste for all those years, and also how the scientific knowledge that they and their regulators professed to have failed to protect the innocent wildlife being poisoned by their greedy business interest. A knowledge of A level chemistry helped me understand some of it, and those unpaid by any party connected to the lagoon financially or surrounding area the rest. Having an “ology” does not make you an expert on everything, even if you are conceited enough to think it does. Take the case of Erin Brockovich for example and how she was able to uncover a great chemical deception with water in the US, and continues to fight for environmental justice with her “sticktoitness” philosophy.
It is a community however that holds the key to environmental justice. Unfortunately apathy is something which infects some people living in such areas as this and the fact that people have not literally dropped dead living next to both the lagoon and the former Duport’s tip site should not be taken as a barometer of them being “safe”.
People are of course free to let the grass grow around their feet, ignore all warnings about what is likely to happen only to wake up one day and when they pull back the curtains see a mechanical digger has shovelled a load of foundry sand across an area that once supported wildlife. They probably believe the opinions of a someone that their house prices will go down if they make a public fuss, where as that same person’s luxurious pad in green belt land, unspoilt by tipping weighs in at around £1.15 million.
Gone is the view, the claims made that the area would “not be built on” and the reality starts to bite that they have been sold a pup.
The following day after our event, myself and a co organiser of the petition attended the event being held in Victoria park Tipton- which included a Sandwell council officer stall concerning the Black country Core strategy and the DPSPD. Our attendance was probably unexpected to say the least, but perhaps an increase of two to anyone who will actually be affected by the site allocations in The Temple Way area who did not attend.
It was stated that the Black Country Core strategy and site allocations would be reviewed next year, which to us makes the DPSPD quite useless, especially as the council already announced this week that they had acquired money for The Birmingham Canal revamp in the area anyway.
Of course we will object at every opportunity concerning these allocations and their unsustainability of being sited next to a hazardous waste lagoon emitting toxic gas.
There remains one week left to comment on the DPSPD, and do not be misguided into believing that site allocations are a done deal, because as the officers were forced to concede, the ground conditions are far from being “shovel ready”, and they also stated that Sandwell council would not buy the land because of those constraints making it unviable. Well that’s some confidence there isn’t it! See the SWOT analysis “threats” below which was strangely omitted from the main document itself and only revealed when we FOI’d it. We’ve added a few relevant pointers for potential developers about “ground conditions” in the area. 🙄
TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSALS IN THIS DOCUMENT YOU CAN EMAIL
ldf_planning@sandwell.gov.uk
Alternatively at the council event they also gave out a postal address at which you can respond to the proposals, strangely not included in the council publicity (or lack of it) concerning the DPSPD.
PLANNING REGENERATION, SANDWELL MBC, SANDWELL COUNCIL HOUSE, FREETH STREET, OLDBURY, WEST MIDLANDS, B69 3DE.
PLEASE DO THIS BEFORE 5.30 PM MONDAY 7TH AUGUST 2017
Remember you can also sign an online petition
which together with a paper one will be handed in shortly at the same time.
THERE IS ALSO THE CURRENT BLACK COUNTRY CORE STRATEGY WHICH CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
It is important that people are able to shape their own areas and not by others who dictate by design what should happen from outside them. The open question remains for these people-
“WOULD YOU YOURSELVES EVER CHOOSE TO LIVE THERE, AND IF NOT WHY NOT?”
Science can be bought, and things can be spun.
Sometimes it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know and the circles in which they operate.
That was the Winter of 2010, when everyone called me Ba*tard , and it didn’t occur to me to mind. That was before Osama Bin Laden was shot, before One Direction, when I couldn’t wait to join two pieces of paper together to form a chain and I never thought I’d find out what lies beneath rattechain lagoon!
It started in the bleakest Winter for over 30 years in earnest. Diggers appeared on top of the mound that once featured the Rattlechain brickworks which had been replaced by Mintworth’s massive over tipped pile of foundry sand.
Here’s video I took of this at the time.
What was going on here, after an apparent long lull in any site activity? The site as we know had been left largely abandoned following this company’s apparent “liquidation”.
Sandwell council had for reason’s only known to themselves actually used £14,000 of tax payers money to fence off Mintworth’s “derelict site” from the long suffering residents of Gladstone Drive, who not adverse to suffering “misery” from their foundry sand tipping, were now experiencing “scavengers” and “tatters” as well as motor bike enthusiasts- all of course due to the lack of any site security. In actual fact this had been going on since the 1970’s according to correspondence on file.
Why did tax payers have to fund the fencing of private land, and not the site owner?
How remarkable then that although they had apparently gone into “liquidation”, and also not met the requirements of the site licence SL947 leading to its surrender, but had in fact bypassed this by liquidating, that they should assume the right to once again use Johns Lane and the canal as a means of gaining access up to their abandoned mound.
Signs appeared on the fence line of the Rhodia site, and it was quite apparent that damage was being caused not only to this but also the track up to the canal with the new unusual heavy traffic.
The diggers and large pieces of machinery kept coming, and the eventual thaw revealed large movements of material, well within the Duport’s Tip area. A friend of mine decided to take a short cut home to carry a water bowser and discovered quite a few shocking sites.
A massive crater had been carved out in an area that included the stated “Duport’s Tip”. A large blue piece of machinery loomed like an invading spacecraft that had settled in the pit. It was quite a mess, and several metres deep!
“NO BODY PUTS FOUNDRY IN THE CORNER…”
Silica- a human carcinogen
Worse than this silica packaging, with the clear warning on the red packaging that this was a human carcinogen. It was evident in the carved out water filled craters that much of the so called rags, scrap packaging etc was still there and had not been removed from the site.
This overload!
For scale, a meter ruler highlighted was placed at the foot of one of the new crevasses. See middle of picture if you enlarge it.
Johnny’s castle?
Having reviewed my friends pictures, I approached both Sandwell MBC and The Environment Agency. The latter effectively told me “not us GOV- see Sandwell council. The council effectively told us to see the EA!
It is exactly this type of BS that unfortunately allowed this rotten site, and that at the lagoon to exist in the first place, particularly for those who know how to exploit them both.
According to John Baylay- (aka the man from Del Monte at Sandwell on account of how he always liked to say “YES” to Mintworth’s many planning applications) , these works he ascertained were for purposes as follows.
“I attended a site meeting with the owner (John Hurst of Mintworth Transport Ltd) in August 2010 and again in February 2011. I have made several other site inspections from nearby roads and the canal since then.
The site owner has explained that: –
1. Settlement, scouring and erosion, criminal damage to the perimeter security, and extensive ‘tatting’ for metals has left the site far from the state that it was left in on completion of the approved reclamation/landfill operation well over 10 years ago;
2. The activities undertaken have been for the purpose of repairing and making the site safe; returning it to the state in which it was, and reducing the likelihood of trespass and/or accident.
3. The activities have involved the placement of screened foundry sand over exposed slags and lumps; re-dressing the slopes to make them safe; and, improving vegetation cover over parts of the site.
ahem
4. The screened material has been obtained has been obtained by screening existing fill materials on the site.
5. The activities are matters of maintenance and repair to the approved landform (i.e. good housekeeping) and do not therefore amount to “development” requiring planning permission.
To date it has not been considered that there is a clear breach of planning control requiring action by the local planning authority in the public interest. However, the matter will be kept under review and I expect to have a further site meeting in the next month or so.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Regards
John Baylay
Principal Planning Officer”
So basically from Sandwell council there, we have a continuation of the same extensions of time, excuses and apathy of what exactly was going on there as they showed throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s.
If this was about “good house keeping”- then why did Sandwell council repair the damaged fence belonging to John Hurst, (a licence condition and also legal requirement), and not them for him?
Why do motor bikes continue to be an issue at the site- some 7 years after this query to the council?
Large amounts of metal were recovered from this site, and it is quite clear that these were taken away, no doubt to weigh them in for quite a mint. But why were they allowed to be dumped there in the first place with the foundry sand during the supposed period of licensing?
Fast Forward to 2017 and all that appears to remain behind of Mintworth’s presence at the site is a skip and a curious sandwich cabin. A yellow digger that had been there for years after these tatting operations from earlier in the decade apparently according to local residents was removed off site from Gladstone Drive just a couple of weeks ago- remarkably timed to coincide with the start of the ludicrous Sandwell council “consultation” for the “Dudley Port Supplementary planning document.”
Conspiracy or coincidence- you decide- but here’s a reminder of that digger and what it was used for at the site, and hopefully it will not be coming back any time soon, whilst at the same time informing new residents of Gladstone Drive as well as Law Close as to what it was doing there in the first place.
Hardly the vegan grindhouse!
One wonders how anyone at this site ever had a clean pair of hands to start with.
We are now three weeks into a supposed consultation regarding The Dudley Port Supplementary planning document that in part seeks to think it is a good idea to build more houses right next to a hazardous waste area that is emitting toxic gas.
But rather than consult the residents of The Temple Way Estate, Sandwell council are instead hiding it in a tent in Victoria park Tipton next week- well over a mile away from where any of the action will take place, and “the misery”.
You can see what the birds think of it!
Well that just won’t do!
We want to see this area left to nature and kept green, not foundry sand black. We want to see the nature reserve at Sheepwash thrive and not become further threatened and marginalised by inappropriate development- and water contamination through industrial sources.
PLEASE OBJECT TO SMBC’S PROPOSALS BY CONTACTING
ldf_planning@sandwell.gov.uk
COME AND JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN AT OUR CONSULTATION EVENT TO STOP THE GARDEN CITY AND PROTECT SHEEPWASH LOCAL NATURE RESERVE AND THE SURROUNDING AREA FOR WILDLIFE AND FOR PEOPLE.
Tipton Road Methodist Church
Saturday 22nd July between 11am -3pm
#SAVEDUDLEYPORT- STOPTHEGARDENCITY
The peace and tranquillity of Temple Way……
It all started with a big hole in the ground, left there by a brick maker and subsequently taken over by tatters, scavengers and fly tippers. Then came the foundry sand dumpers, hundreds of tonnes of it. Throw in multiple planning applications and waste disposal licences under the guise of “different” companies with the same individuals running them, time extensions when those planning permissions were not met and protracted arguments between The Environment agency and their solicitors over gas barriers and Christmas trees! But visibly the noise, the stress, the damage to households from black foundry sand and the over tipping to leave a massive pile of black slag sitting astride a buried pit of toxic and hazardous gassing venom. JUST WHAT HAPPENED AT TEMPLE WAY TO CAUSE THIS “MISERY?”
It all started with big plans. The newly formed Black Country Development Corporation were eager to create a flagship house building project, but somewhere along the way of the Temple it all went pear shaped and became a third white elephant.
The Temple at the Way
The letter below is from where this blog post was taken and it is a letter written by a resident of Temple Way in 1990 on behalf of The Temple Way Action Group, when the BCDC had approved the first in a long line of applications surrounding this site, a letter that was to prove so prophetically accurate that I cannot better it in explanation as to why it remains so relevant today which is why I am printing it in full below.
“In granting this application BCDC are going to subject the residents of the adjoining housing estate to a high level of distress for the next several years.”
“What it will mean to residents in real terms
On site plant operating 11 hours per day six days per week for two years, and that will just be the first part of this programme
At least 100 heavy vehicles per day , transporting this untreated waste from site , greatly increasing the traffic problem in an already congested area.
Excavation of this waste within 25 yards of private dwellings
A potential health hazard that cannot be fully estimated to any degree of satisfaction. Not just the direct effects of pollutants released into the atmosphere but also by the high levels of stress that can be induced by the effects of the continual noise emissions from the site. “
The waste in fact was not moved off site and below is a basic outline of what happened next -starting with the application referred to in the letter above, which was supposedly going to take just a couple of years to achieve. More detail in several posts and pages about this to follow- because it becomes very convoluted! 🙄
BCS 905 granted March 1990 for land reclamation and drainage works, including off site relocation of fills and importation of substitute materials. (condition 2 reads “The operations shall not be discontinued on or before 28/2/92.”
BCS 1804 granted April 1992, variation of condition 2 of BCS 905 extending operations -condition 2 now expires 28th February 1995
BCS 1813 granted July 1992, reclamation of sewage works and Duport’s Tip and importation of fill
DECEMBER 1992 WASTE DISPOSAL LICENCE Permit SL947 ISSUED TO MINTWORTH QUAYS LIMITED TO OPERATE A LANDFILL SITE AT RATTLECHAIN TIP.
BCS 2206 granted May 1993, development of land without compliance with conditions 3,9,18 and 19 of BCS 1813.
BCS 2244 Not determined Storage of soils and topsoils
BCS 2407 granted September 1993, variation of conditions 9 and 18 of BCS 1813. All work to be implemented within 19 months and a leachate disposal system installed within 19 months, i.e completed by the end of April 1995
BCS 2585 granted with conditions 28/9/94
Section 73 application to vary conditions 9 and 18 of BCS1813 as amended by BCS2407
BCS 2880 granted with conditions 25/3/96
Residential development on the land following infill by sand and granular material together with ancillary engineering works and gas vent barrier on western boundary of the land
BCS 3272 Granted with conditions 15/1/96
Section 73 application in respect of condition 3 of BCS 1813
BCS 3242 granted with conditions 1/9/97
Section 73 application to vary conditions 1 and 20 of BCS 1813 (AS AMMENDED) in respect of the technical specification of the cap to and profile of the finished tip.
BCS 3593 Granted with conditions 1/9/97
Section 73 application in respect of amended condition 3 of BCS 1813 to extend time. Amended condition 3 states “The operations authorised by this permission BCS1813 shall be discontinued on or before 3rd September 1996.”
This application sort to vary condition 3 to extend time period for further 12 months to 3rd September 1997.
BCS 3979 Granted with conditions 22/10/97
Section 73 application to vary condition 3 of BCS1813
DC/98/34753 REFUSED 9/2/99 Appeal withdrawn 22/12/99
Section 73 application to vary condition 3 of BCS1813 to extend the completion date for landfill operations from 30/9/98 to 30/4/99.
DC/99/35487 Granted with conditions 6/8/99
Section 73 application to vary condition 13 of planning permission BCS 1813 to extend the period of time for implementation of landscaping from 31/5/99 to 30/11/99.
DC/38330 Granted with conditions 31/12/01
Section 73 application. Variation of condition 14 of planning permission BCS 2880 to extend the time for completion of the landfill operation until 25th July 2003.
DC/02/39569 Granted with conditions 3/10/02
Section 73 application. Variation of condition 4 of planning permission BCS 2880 to extend time for the submission of reserved matters applications until 25th July 2003.
DC/02/39689 Granted with conditions 3/10/02
Section 73 application . Variation of condition 20 of planning permission BCS2880
DC/02/38855 Granted with conditions 28/3/02
Section 73 application- variation of condition 5 of planning permission BCS2880 to extend the time for submission of reserved matters until 25th July 2002.
Some of this protracted landscaping operation would become planning application DC/02/39115– The Barratt Homes development to extend MacDonald close and create streets like Addington Way and Shelbourne Close.
The key points to bring out of this complex and ludicrous 12-13 year operation , which as previously stated was originally supposed to last less than half of this are
Below is a letter from a former director of a company who appear out of nowhere to have shown an interest in the continued dumping of foundry sand on the former brickworks site. The concern of this company director for business does not appear to care about the end point of where its waste ends up, and in the case of the foundry sand, the “misery” it caused local residents in the process.
I could not really give a flying f##k about Darcast Limited or its survival, but the fears were clearly not realised from this scaremongering letter with the company still in business today as another entity. Let’s hope they have however found a better way of disposing of their waste. Let’s also be clear in that the cheapness of the disposal was profit for the company who delivered and tipped the waste, and in time over tipped the waste and left it there, also blocking two rights of Way which remain “substantially blocked” according to Sandwell Council.
One can clearly see the residents frustration about all of this and the letters of objection every time The Hurst’s applied for yet another planning extension to their operations. Houses were allegedly blackened, and people feared for their health whilst also reporting noise and little consideration for their wellbeing. These are matters of record.
The letters, (just some of those in objection to the never ending saga of applications that I have read in relation to this site) below speak for themselves, written by people living on this estate that had to live with the issues of this company tipping and shifting waste on a daily basis over many years with little apparent direction as to where it was all going. Collectively it is not at all unfair to state that they offer a very real warning from history.
“black dust, all over our houses, washing, gardens and cars”
“Perhaps when we are dead and buried, (long after the likes of you and John Hurst), you may feel a little sorry for what you allow to go on on that site called “rattlechain tip” …
…..do you think money for him is more important than the health of people on Gladstone Drive?”
“we were told we would have 100 lorries a day for two years to clear the land. 9 years on it still is not finished….
…we are very very frustrated and think we have been treated really bad by the council and the landowner. We have also lost around £5000 off the value of our house which we can not sell because of the mound of land.”
“the landowner does not reply to letters sent to him.”
opposition and numerous calls fall on deaf ears at SMBC, and like “living down a mine”
“I have made numerous calls to various departments , including environmental health….to express my concern about the height of the dirt tip, and indeed the pollution it is now causing to myself and my neighbours. I can only assimilate our present environment to living down a mine…..
I cannot express strongly enough my opposition to this particular planning request to extend the licence for Rattlechain. I am sick to the high teeth of the dirt and grime that is consistently coming across rattlechain, dirtying our property and doing who knows what to our health.”
time extensions
“this particular company seem to request “extensions” on a regular basis, and nothing seems ever closer to finishing.”
“A lot of people are suffering from chest problems, and even my own Grandaughter who lives with us has been diagnosed as having asthma at age 7, and she is one of many in the close proximity of this eyesore”
“Our properties are being devalued due to the black dust coming from this site…..
….why should we suffer daily from the constant havoc this site is causing to the residents of this once peaceful estate? “
And then there are the excuses for the never ending “reclamation” that actually was never fully realised across the whole site- to the point of building houses upon it. But when the weather is blamed for not being able to comply with a planning application (and asking for yet more time)- you start to get the impression that someone must really be taking the piss.
For a pictorial illustration of what we are talking about- take a look at this stock image of one of the houses in Gladstone Drive and the proximity of the foundry sand pile in the face of it.
Or maybe this one of tippers looking down from above. You can imagine the plumes of dust cascading across below.
This Express and Star article “Tipping misery goes on despite promises” records the “misery” still further.
“Families who live near to a controversial Tividale tip have had their hopes of an end to their seven year nightmare dashed. Dust clouds have blown onto homes around the rattlechain tip off Temple Way since work began in 1992.”
The Environment Agency confirmed in the FOI request put to them that the waste management licence for this site was conveniently never surrendered – which would have involved completion of all the aspects of the licence.
“The operator Mintworth Quays Ltd; were dissolved on 22 March 2007 whereupon the licence SL947 ceased to exist.”
Quite clearly there is a major sense of Deja Vu about all of this with an uncanny situation now unfolding in exactly in the manner that it did in 1990. A new Black Country Development Corporation in the form of “The Black Country Local Enterprise partnership”. Secret meetings taking place at the Temple between organisations plotting housebuilding and residents in the dark, glossy propaganda in the form of The Dudley port Supplementary planning document…..
– that is except to say that we now live in the internet age, and people are no longer in the dark and can carry out research in a much better way for themselves.
There are now even more residents living in the vicinity of the proposed ludicrous “garden city” housing area. I just wonder what “misery” stories they will be telling and what letters they will be writing in the years to come if this scheme gets the green light?
Some of the letter writers at Temple Way Estate appear to have contacted elected members, but unfortunately letters to many local politicians in this part of the world fall on deaf ears because they are business whores who cannot do enough favours for their business clientele. The only time they solicit residential dwellers are shortly before elections- and then they are gone again like toms into the night.
Many local elected are also private landlords, and so there can never be enough new houses built for them to line their seedy pockets still further. They can however be voted out.
To comment and object against these proposals and to stop the “misery” coming back please contact
#STOP THE GARDEN CITY
about to be shattered…again…..?
#mobilise, #galvanise #activise.
Thumbs down to “The Garden City”
A vitally important consultation is now underway concerning the futures of all residents of Tividale and the Tipton area centred around Dudley Port. I cannot stress enough how important it is for residents who live in areas where new housing is proposed to have their say about their future wellbeing.
Many of these sites are not at all suitable for housing, and are either built on old toxic tips or situated right next to others. None of the people proposing these schemes in their ivory towers really care where housing is stuck- they just have responsibility for meeting targets set by bureaucrats in National and local Government who neither care nor live in any of the areas affected.
It is the quite disastrous EU open door policy and failure of The Blair Government and subsequent ones to stop it that has caused the shortfall in housing, the lack of services and the impossible task of meeting needs. This is not the fault of those who came here seeking a better life, but they like the existing longstanding community need to be educated about the dire tipping history in this area, and ensure they are not conned into believing that they are buying a “quality home” in picturesque surroundings.
Developers are greedy liars with plenty of money to use “environmental consultants” to push through their hair brained schemes. Planners talk of “visions” for areas, yet these paperweight pipe dreams in the case of the area known as “The fomer Duport’s Tip” – actually on the site of the former Rattlechain brickworks and situated to the East of Rattlechain lagoon, did not materialise over 30 years ago when The Black Country Development Corporation touted the area in the same terms of “transformation” as the current unelected quango’s propose.
Seen it all before
WHO ARE “THE BLACK COUNTRY ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP”, WHO ARE “THE BLACK COUNTRY CONSORTIUM”, WHO ARE THE WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY”, AND WHY SHOULD A PLANNING INSPECTOR BASED IN BRISTOL BE ABLE TO DETERMINE THE LANDSCAPE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN AN AREA OVERPOPULATED ALREADY WHERE AS THOSE WHO BY THEIR OWN CHOICE FROM THE AFOREMENTIONED NON-ENTITIES LIVE IN SPLENDID RURAL ISOLATION THAT IS PROTECTED FROM “GREEN-BELT” DEVELOPMENT?
Why should the geographically distinct areas of Tipton and Oldbury be consumed and its green borders removed and cack handedly welded into one sprawling housing estate which may after what it is built on forthwith be known as just “OLD TIP“?
The document entitled “The Dudley port supplementary planning document” sits below something known as “The Black Country Core Strategy”- (yes they really make it easy to understand don’t they), which is an overarching document approved in 2011/12 which I gave a submission at the time.
Read this “Tale of Two Tips document below.
There is now a consultation review about this starting on 3rd July, and if you really want to endure the oppressive 100 plus page document, you can comment on that HERE. Please do, because local authorities/planners don’t want you to object to their scheming plans.
What the Dudley Port supplementary planning document missed out was the so called “SWOT” analysis. This stands for “Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.” I asked for this in a freedom of information request to Sandwell council.
It was revealed that several bodies met at the Hindu Temple in May concerning this scheme, yet no one from the local area, crucially residents whom it will affect were even invited to ask questions- questions which will be pretty bloody relevant to THEM when they realise the years of tipping activity and disruption that will affect the value of their homes and cause untold misery environmentally.
That’s a pretty big “threat” , yet barely a mention of the proximity to this hazardous waste landfill site containing a banned rat poison that is emitting toxic gas.
The SWOT analysis provides a very interesting insight into this whole scheme, and underlines what we already know regards the “Threats” to this nonsense house building “opportunities”. The threats are summarised but not fully elucidated, and revealing in that the Newcomen Drive proposals are financially not sound because of remediation constraints.
“LACK OF GAP FUNDING TO REMEDIATE LIMESTONE MINE HOUSING ACCOMODATION AT CONEYGREE”
What is not revealed in this threat is that the same land owner of this site also owns the area around the former rattlechain brickworks (“former Duport’s Tip”. Read about how “Duport Properties Limited” and “Birlee industrial Limited” operated on this site in the late seventies/early 80’s HERE.
Much disruption and what local residents of Gladstone Drive and surrounding streets described as “misery” occurred throughout the 1990’s with grandiose “reclamation” schemes” which facilitated the development of the former sewage works (now Callaghan and Wilson Drives) , and the extension of MacDonald Close in the furthest part away from the former “Duport’s Tip” area. Much controversy surrounds these developments, particularly the sewage works and how Barratt Homes did not tell buyers about Rattlechain lagoon. Barratt’s also built on the MacDonald Close development.
In terms of the current proposed sites, neither of these two schemes have produced ANY form of action within the last several years, and one has to ask WHY?
Is it acceptable that someone can sit on land and wait for a tax payer money tree to come along and pay for site restoration/remediation that they themselves are clearly not willing or are financially unable to bring forward themselves, let alone “pay” for polluting it in the first place?
“CONTAMINATED LAND REMEDIATION COSTS”
All of this land would be classed as “contaminated” if it were brought forward for development because it would not be safe to live in such areas without remediation. I have touched on some of the issues surrounding the old brickworks site and especially the former so called “Duport’s tip”- an absolute disgrace that should never have happened because of the conman Sydney Sheldon who claimed to be a brick maker but only facilitated rubble tipping.
“INNAPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENT”
Who wants to live next to a gassing toxic waste lagoon classed as a “hazardous waste site” that still has yet to be remediated? Anyone? Does anyone want to risk their families health in the years to come when the outcomes of living next to this site on human health are currently not known?
During works by Mintworth in the 1990’s people were complaining about asthma on the Temple Way Estate being elevated by the amounts of foundry sand being churned up and spread. I will go into more detail on this in an upcoming blog post, but soil derived dust was something that was never dealt with sufficiently within the terms of the licence issued.
The lessons of history are crucial to understanding what this consultation is about because if you are clueless on the history of this area (as the compilers of this plan appear to be), then you are truly open to being exploited. Recent events which have made building control and planning matters international news have raised the spectre of how easily those at the top overlook so much regards future effects of their decisions. But it is not just the cladding of high rise buildings that needs re-evaluation, it is the foundations at the bottom and the land which it is built on that will affect people long into the future, and long after the greedy developers have left the scene.
The lessons of places such as Love Canal have not really been learned, and sticking half a metre of top soil over former tipping land does not make it “safe”. As has recently come to light in Walsall, this process of building on old contaminated land sites, deemed “acceptable” is going to have a very costly consequence for that authority and the people now living there.
HOW LITTLE SANDWELL HAS LEARNED FROM THIS.
PLEASE INFORM THE COUNCIL OF YOUR OBJECTIONS TO THIS SCHEME, AND IF YOU PREFER TO SEE THIS
INSTEAD OF YEARS OF THIS.
YOUR FUTURES ARE AT STAKE. MAKE YOUR VIEWS COUNT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
#STOP “THE GARDEN CITY”.
….It’s just a dirty pity
What was buried in your backyard?
Do you live in Macdonald Close, Addington Way, Shelbourne Close or Portland Drive , Tividale?
Here’s some important information for you. The stuff you can’t find anymore because it’s been buried.
Check out these freedom of information requests
Did you live or work in the Temple Way area in the 1980’s/1990’s. Did you suffer any ill health effects like asthma?
n.b Subsequent planning applications and landfill operations may have displaced or removed these materials , but may also have compromised human and environmental health by doing so to outlying areas. The same planning authority , Sandwell, granted tipping of these wastes under these vague auspices.
More soon.
Company number 1134915 may well be an obscure non entity known to the general public. It is however all that really remains- (except the dire pollution legacy), of the once second largest chemical company in the UK.
The dates of the demise of Albright and Wilson shown from the Tenneco ownership days are shown below, with the company now known as “Rhodia reorganisation Ltd”.
There are pages and pages of good stuff on the companies House website- particularly about the individuals who were running this environmental shambles from Trinity Street- or at some points a “world headquarters” in another part of Oldbury.
Extracts below are taken from a document concerning flotation of the company .
The historic context of this came when American owners Tenneco wanted disposal of the British company for restructuring of their key operations after a 24 year period of involvement with the firm. The announcement for AW shares came in late 1994.
This included 1,540,000 shares allocated to employees- I wonder how many “comrades” in Oldbury took up the offer? 😆 In just five years however , the company would no longer exist!
The brief makes reference to Albright and Wilson’s involvement with other environmental chemical polluters like Monsanto, as well as the planning application BCS 2336 for extending the phosphorus trichloride plant at Oldbury and also the phosphorus oxychloride plant.
Not content with trying to blow up the local area, (as well as poisoning the ducks and giving their employees phossy jaw), the company were forever trying to blow their own trumpet in terms of how they were saving the environment. They jockingly regarded it as one of their “strengths”.
The real truth was somewhat evidentially different.
“Albright and Wilson attaches high priority to the protection of the health and safety of its employees, customers, neighbours and others who they may come into contact with or be affected by, its operations and products. It also recognises its duty to protect the environment both in the vicinity of its operations and elsewhere by the responsible management of waste materials.”
You really could not make this bullshit up- and not mentioned in this little piece were the facts that within a five year period when this was written , a large phosphorus fire at their Portishead site had occurred as well as incidents at Oldbury- and of course the small matter of the 1991 Charlston explosion which killed 9 people- they didn’t get any shares.
The mention of waste materials is particularly important to this blog as the management of them was anything but “responsible” as evidenced by the site records at Rattlechain following on from the time.
The mention of the fact that the technical director was ultimately responsible for AW’s actions is interesting as we can all blame it on the gentleman from that time- namely John Robert Adsetts.
Albright and Wilson, like most polluters continue to operate, legitimised their activities through the device of the environmental consultant. In this case an American outfit called “Dames and Moore”- sounds like a swingers bar. This merged into URS in 1999- with which we are familiar from Rhodia’s subsequent paid reports. They were apparently appointed to survey all of Albright and Wilson’s operative sites, as well as those they still had to remediate.
Skip the bull below to the crucial statement in red underlined- because that is key- and the key from which all environmental consultants operate in reporting what their clients want them to. They undertook no analysis of site samples whatsoever in coming to conclusions.
“The Dames and Moore assessment did not take the form of a full range of investigations (in that no soil or groundwater sampling took place.. “
The letter from February 1995 from this company is also interesting.
“No significant issues were identified by us that were previously unknown to Albright and Wilson’s management…”
So does this mean that Dames and Moore investigated the operation at Rattlechain, the historic military disposal of phosphorus based weapons at the site and the risk of white phosphorus being ingested by birds as a known banned rat poison? So what did John Adsetts already know then at this time or was white phosphorus at this site just not deemed “significant”?
If I had known then what I know now- it would have been pretty bloody significant for him and his wretched company that’s for sure!
It would be interesting to see what Dames and Moore came up with at this site- but that report is likely buried well in the vaults of PO BOX 80. I attempted to ask the Environment agency about reports concerning restoration options that URS had apparently carried out in an FOI request-namely
CL Associates, “restoration Options for Rattlechain Sludge Lagoon, Oldbury, West Midlands, dated July 1996, reference no 6871 and
URS Corporation ltd, Options Study for restoration of the Rattlechain sludge lagoon, Ref 1064/44557-020-787/JC/RC, dated 20 March 2002
and they claimed to have never seen it.
The final company report for Albright and Wilson in 1998 also contains an interesting statement regards a Friends of The Earth report of that year where AW was heavily criticised for continued pollution.
Sales in the UK in that year hit £241.3, the same year that Adsetts retired.
So as these executives retired into a phosphorus sunset on golden pensions, so behind then was left the toxic legacy of their operations. According to Hugh Podger in his book “Albright and Wilson The last 50 years, “in September of 1999 Chief executive Paul Rocheleau stated that for the first time in 13 years with A&W it was possible to say that there were no significant environmental issues outstanding.”
Of course, we know different!
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