What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

It didn’t take long for the failed nonsense of “the garden city” to rear its ugly head again in the guise of a new document entitled Dudley_Port_SPD_draft_Doc_final_reduced (1), recently published on Sandwell council’s website. This glossy brochure has been recommended for consultation at the borough’s cabinet meeting which of course just gets waived through. This consultation apparently according to the pretty picture laden article will take place in June.

“the SPD will be subject to public consultation with a range of stakeholders, agencies, residents and businesses in order to capture and consider all issues and options that will lead to the development of this spatial plan.”

There are many aspects to look at from this utter pile of bollocks, some of which I already mentioned in a previous post about history of some of the proposed site around Rattlechain lagoon. I am not aware of who is behind this or if they are just naïve about the history of the area and its industrial contamination for profit. That I can educate them on by reading this website and the proven link sources which confirm reliability- very often from SMBC’s own files.

What I am not going to tolerate is ignorance once they are familiar with that history, and a fantasist belief that they can somehow bypass, ignore or get around that history by trying to create the kind of fantasist brochure as outlined in the supplementary document.

Flowery .GOV language abounds as usual in the prospectus with “sustainability” “diversity”, “community cohesion”  etc mentioned throughout hitting the reader like a rag covered head butt.

It appears a secret meeting between different parties took place at the ever expanding temple in Tividale- although no members of the community or public appear to have been invited for their views. This led to a so called “SWOT analysis”- how they love their acronyms, which refers to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is stated in the document that the full SWOT analysis is in the appendices, though there are no appendices with the document. I have asked for this in a freedom of information request to Sandwell council. It will be interesting to see what they consider to be the weaknesses and threats.

There will be many posts to come and also pages regarding the main focus of land in this supplementary planning document surrounding Rattlechain lagoon, which is located on the former Rattlechain/Barnett’s  brickworks site. The term “Rattlechain Tip” does not in fact really apply to this land, but has been identity grabbed at some point in time in order to try to muddy the waters of history- that history being coloured by indiscriminate and unsanctioned dumping of waste and more precisely the over tipping of foundry sand across vast swathes which has left a giant plateau overlooking the Birmingham canal and lagoon itself.

The description below from Sandwell council offers a good starting point in investigating what went on here, following the absolute con artistry from Sidney Sheldon’s dissolution of brick making at the site.

According to M.W Harris, chief planning officer at SMBC, the sprawling site by 1984 which included the so called “Duport’s Tip” .

“I have been aware of tipping at the site for over 16 years, and for at least four years, no control was exercised over the materials deposited or placement of those materials.”

He also goes on to state that “pictorial records have been kept of the various stages of filling the site from 1973 onwards.”

“Materials of organic origin, chemical drums and unsuitable industrial waste are present. Some evidence of dumping of liquid waste exists. Unmarked tankers have been witnessed pumping liquids into lagoons in the centre of the site. Additionally large quantities of hazardous waste , including asbestos were deposited.”

“The area of the land holding which was the former Duport Tip was subject to the bulk of the indiscriminate dumping.”

Harris goes on to state to the Black Country Development Corporation that

“The bulk of the surface fills within the Duport Tip contain dangerous and obnoxious materials. Any scheme involving excavation, moving or removal of such materials should provide sufficient safeguards to protect the adjoin housing estate against dust and gases from dangerous and obnoxious waste. Potentially dangerous materials such as asbestos will require special licences before it is disturbed. The Health and Safety Executive should be consulted regarding their special requirements.”

I am aware that this material referred to was excavated under licence but never removed legally from the site. IT IS STILL THERE.

I will look at the full story of this site and its interface with the real “rattelchain site” in future posts and pages.

This vast history can be detected and précised and I will do this so that those now living on the Temple Way Estate and also the new former sewage works site of Callaghan and Wilson Drives are not conned into believing that any form of new works associated with this site will bring anything but “misery” to the area, as it did throughout the 1990’s.

This term “misery” is not one I use , but one of a resident who lived in Temple Way at the time and which was clearly shared by others who became used to the daily soiling of their windows and washing together with black dirty foundry sand with non stop vehicular activity also shattering the peace. This took place over a number of years through sustained planning applications sort to extend the time of tipping- in reality allowing more tipping to take place which would have course generated associated income for doing so.

Make no mistake , the provenance of this tipping, the various companies and directors involved are all traceable and are not going to be allowed to consign themselves to vacant amnesia- which is a big problem for local authorities like Sandwell when it comes to “the polluter pays principle”. It is quite clear with this site, mothballed when a site licence was conveniently surrendered by a company going into voluntary liquidation, only to reinvent itself and carry on as almost the exact same named company, who was involved and at what time.

Save for a brief tatting operation for want of a better adequate description which took place  in 2010-2011, it has remained untouched but greened over producing a varied and important compliment to Sheepwash and attracts a good variety of biodiversity. One birdwatcher in the area has commented that it is better than Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve in that it is “untouched” with little human activity as is associated with the SMBC owned 90 acre SINC.

View of the green mound that was once black

This therefore is where the planning document instantly starts to fail when it talks of housebuilding- because extra house building in this area will destroy both this site and doom Sheepwash to be nothing other than a dog crap stop with water feature views. Unfortunately it already has become this to a large extent. Whilst business prospers with fellating by political heavyweights , so nature reserves and nature corridors diminish.

The very brief summary of this site that I have given above appears omitted from the new Dudley Port document- but why should public money be spent facilitating the clean up and removal of thousands of tonnes of useless material – some 6000 tonnes were allowed from this licence- per day!- HOW HAS THE KNOWN POLLUTER PAID?

The description of the site offered by SMBC and presumably pitched at unsuspecting developers is priceless and omits the key information- which SMBC as evidenced above are fully aware of or should be!

“Constraints: information regarding ground conditions is limited but it is known that the site will require significant engineering and regrading of the foundry sand to provide suitable levels. 

The total site may not be capable of complete development, however, this would provide the opportunity to provide green landscaping belts across the site.  access through the existing residential area will need to be addressed to ensure that transport issues are mitigated and resolved.  the site has been marketed previously with little interest from housing developers due to perceived market issues, however, the 60 unit residential scheme at Palmerston Drive shows that there is appetite for housing within the local area. “

What a complete and total disingenuous statement this is! So this is basically stating that significant works will need to be undertaken but without a timescale, and of course, all of the green will disappear and become black again. The area which would not be capable of development is of course the former Duport’s Tip- oh yes that was the unsanctioned dumping area that contained “Materials of organic origin, chemical drums and unsuitable industrial waste”

The fact that it has been marketed previously is a good indication that developers are not as bloody stupid as the council would have them believe as long as they have done their homework, or are for example reading this blog post now. Some of the other so called laughably “sustainable” sites mentioned include some interesting links. The Newcomen Drive site is owned by the same entity as that as which deposited foundry sand at the former brickworks site. Granted outline planning permission in 2008 on appeal, a further planning application requesting more time in 2012 to commence the scheme was sort. THE SITE HAS YET TO BE TOUCHED OR RECLAIMED AND WILL ALSO REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT DEPOSITS OF FOUNDRY SAND AND REQUIRE “SIGNIFICANT FUNDING”- DO YOU SEE A PATTERN EMERGING HERE?

Another site off Lower City Road is located next to Rhodia/Solvay’s Gower Tip– another contaminated hellhole where developers consider it a good idea to house people next to an island of toxic and in that case radioactive wastes. The explanation offered to a local journalist a few years ago that this “uranium oxide” had been removed from the site has no credibility or paper trail under licenced consent whatsoever and is not believable at all.

The final insult to people’s intelligence is the brief but telling reference to Rattlechain lagoon itself- that carbunckle which thwarted all attempts by The Black Country Development Corporation and others to build houses across the whole area by infilling the lagoon with the foundry sand- i.e a bumper waste tipping payday for the site operators.

“The area to the south and east of the site is predominantly residential, and to the immediate west lies the wet tip. “

That’s it “the wet tip”. No mention of the fact that it contains tens of tonnes of a banned rat poison –white phosphorus which will catch fire when exposed to air and that is known to have resulted in birds being poisoned who chanced to land on it. That too was covered over and not removed, but developers and “regenerators”  are not going to be allowed to forget that it is there- or the threat it still poses with the clear phosphine gas being generated.

I will have plenty to say in the consultation, and though it is ultimately a battle which will only be lost through the skulduggery of business and political forces, I will do all that I can to delay, frustrate and derail any plans to build houses near to Sheepwash and Rattlechain lagoon. The cost to nature the environment and public health is too great to comprehend.

It’s French election time and sacre bleu, the CEO of Rhodia/Solvay has only gone and not “stayed silent” about who he wants to win. As a former French civil servant, Monsieur ClamadiEU is well placed to know the score and he belongs in a circle where making money is guaranteed by lobbying for globalisation and EU propaganda in Brussels.

ClamadiEU has apparently “broken with tradition” and alongside other money making executives in France such as those wonderful environmentally friendly people as Veolia (lol) backed the pro European ex banking globalist Macron. The text of the French interview from Les Echos is translated into English below.

“On the evening of the first round, almost half of French voters gave their votes to candidates who made partial or total rejection of the European project a strong point of their programs and Marine Le Pen, the most radical in its anti-European speech, Reaches the second round of the presidential election. This vote seriously threatens the future by directly attacking nearly sixty years of common history around the construction of Europe.

As a leader of a large industrial group and as a citizen convinced of the historical rupture that the European construction represents, I can not remain silent. The next day proposed by some of us is the choice of withdrawal into oneself at a time when the uncertainty that hangs over the world, both from the point of view of the major societal and climatic stakes and from the geopolitical context, Stronger Europe.

Our fellow citizens who voted for the anti-European candidates expressed a legitimate anxiety. Europe no longer fulfills its protective role in the face of the monetary, economic, security and immigration crises. But we are all – politicians, business leaders, citizens – co-responsible for the decline of a project that was bequeathed to us after a conflict dominated by destructive nationalisms. Instead of trying to improve and adapt it, we criticized it forgetting to recognize its merits.

Europe is neither left nor right. It is, as the Republic is in France, a framework and means for guaranteeing the values, solidarity, dignity and development of all Europeans. Europe is an opportunity to reveal our potential. I perceive it every day: we operate in a single market that guarantees the circulation of quality, safe and competitive products; We have an area of economic and legal stability conducive to the economic development of enterprises and the well-being of citizens.

In the face of those who are proposing to get out of it, I would rather ask for a more ambitious Europe. To build this Europe we must first believe in ourselves. The borders that we brought down yesterday for trade and men must tomorrow fall on other subjects like taxation or social rights. More Europe is to continue to ensure that our universities and research centers continue to play a major role in the development and transfer of knowledge.

More Europe is creating the ecosystem that will allow our companies to play an equal part with the world leaders and to be the vectors of a social model imbued with European values. At a time when some would like to bury the European project, hiding the major economic and social setbacks that this would entail, I call for concrete initiatives for more Europe, building a more promising and inclusive future for our fellow citizens.”
ClamadiEU talks of “European values” , “safe and competitive products”. Of course he stays fairly silent on matters such as Rhodia’s appalling environmental pollution record: spillages, emissions, and in this part of the world fires.

CEFIC, the chemical industry lobby group from which he is a major player of course favour TTIP, and so no doubt does Macron.

It looks almost certain that he will be the new leader of France following the pitiful Holland, but of course it is a German cock in a frock that is really ruling the roost.

It was recently revealed that the undefined area known as “the black country” is to receive its own “Garden City.” 

“This Garden City vision will utilise existing green, cultural and economic assets to develop attractive places where people want to live, transforming the reality and perception of the Black Country. “

Or so the unelected “Black country Local Enterprise partnership” spout in their glossy literature and video. The truth of course is a different story, and this is not the first time that this sort of tripe has been touted. The Black Country Development Corporation ran along similar lines, whereby it had the power, though never the people backed mandate to compulsory purchase vast areas of so called “brownfield” land. The whole area around Rattlechain lagoon, as well as the lagoon itself was part of this strategy, but it never materialised despite attempts to try and reinvent the area- at one point as “the black country quays”. The big stumbling block- the lagoon and its toxic contents, which at this time Albright and Wilson were still trying to promote as being “vital” to their site operations as a waste disposal site.

Sunken ship

The planning applications surrounding this and reports are vast, but I have read them all and will over the course of time be adding them to this website as a lasting record, a record so that no local residents in the area will be fooled as to what has gone before. The secretive meetings not attended by any local residents, statements made by none residents of the area employed by the BCDC , and plans drawn up by people attempting to make “a mint” from indiscriminate dumping are well worth seeing, and are the footprint of what will not be allowed to happen again.

The plans submitted in the “garden city” are a virtual reboot. I have annotated the diagram proposed for “Dudley Port” below with red crosses.

x denotes contaminated land.

The entire current autobase site, much of it within the former rattlechain contaminated site appears to be the principle “quality home” setting. On the Western side we have the overtipped former rattlechain brickworks site, itself containing the remnants of the new pit which was abandoned and filled with all kinds of uncharacterised shite from local industry for over several decades. The token green space within this denotes the location of this former pit. No doubt with the manner in which developers operate they will at some point attempt to amend these plans to cram in a few more houses on here just to milk the demand for housing quotas even more.

I have now released the second part of the planning history of this adjoining site up to the 1970’s when the brickworks went out of commission altogether.

Let’s be quite clear here, this will not create new jobs for industry. Sandwell Council recently appear to have changed track with The Vaughn trading estate which was earmarked for housing some time ago. It now appears that this will now become a hub for industry. Obviously the trade off will be to compulsory purchase the autobase site and relocate all the businesses on here just a hundred meters across the Netherton Branch canal. This is not therefore going to create new jobs, just relocate existing ones. I’m not sure what the likes of Barrett steel, Rhys Davies logistics or even Diamond busses who have recently just invested in a new site in this location will make of this, but no doubt significant portions of public money doled out by the unelected BCLEP will be used as a sweet persuader.

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE, AS IS ALLOWING GRANTS TO BE GIVEN OUT TO LANDBANKERS WHO HAVE THROUGH THEIR OWN DELIBERATE RECALCITRANCE FAILED TO CLEAR UP SITES BUT HAVE SAT ON ANOTHER QUANGO BEING CREATED TO FACILITATE ANOTHER “SHOVEL READY” SCHEME.

The nearby Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve, undervalued by the local council for years, and overpopulated by increasing numbers of anti social  slime who have settled in the area will only suffer, most evidently by pollution from every source of this disastrous scheme. I have seen it before in other places, and with The Environment Agency and Severn Trent totally unable to even trace the source of industrial pollution into the River Tame via the sewer network, it is quite clear to see where this pollution source will migrate , whatever the claims of stopping this from happening, to which the agency are totally lacking in being able to prevent.

The lack of transparency and hiding of historic information only serve to facilitate these greedy developer schemes, backed up by the institutionally corrupt “environmental consultant” industry (a.k.a the development facilitator industry).

But the BCLEP and all the other suited money grabbing twats clambering over diagrams such as this should heed a recent case concerning contaminated land and Walsall council.

A former gas works in Willenhall was transferred into the Stonegate housing estate.    The ruling by the Secretary of State to quash the council’s remediation notice means that Walsall council taxpayers are now potentially going to have to pay for the clean up of the land and not the company who developed the land. Does this case make it likely or less likely that local authorities will designate land as “contaminated” when they are likely to have to foot the bill for remediation?

The main chemical of concern to this council is one which is now massively widespread and will continue to thwart the developer conmen unless the pollutant linkages are of course covered up, by their “environmental consultants.”

Benzo (a ) pyrene is a known carcinogen and WMBC give a good assessment of the pollutant linkage pathways which could cause significant harm.

Soil derived dusts are by far the most likely pathway identified.

With reference to Albright and Wilson related activities we do have buried figures of benzo (a) pyrene detected in their former chemical arm.

I asked an FOI request about this study and contaminants.  This was particularly relevant as this study recommended removal of the material to an offsite source. The timeline of what happened to this appears to have become rather hazy between Rhodia and the EA, but none the less confirms what was being dumped into Rattlechain lagoon before licensing as it came from this direct source.

Of benzo (a pyrene) it was noted

“The presence of benzo (a)  pyrene, a proven carcinogen, to the total PAH levels is significant, and reported levels in the sediments similar to those reported for US crude oils. Since oil is likely to constitute more than 1.5% of the sediment weight, the level of benzo (a) pyrene in this component appears to be in the range of 80-140 mg/kg. “

NB this figure is significantly above the safe levels of this compound.

We recorded the unacceptable soil derived dust which would have included dredged sediment material being generated at the rattlechain site during the so called “clean up” works at the time.

THE PAID FOR HPA STUDY DID NOT BOTHER ANALYSING FOR BENZO (A) PYRENE IN THE LAGOON SEDIMENT, ALONG WITH MANY OTHER CHEMICALS LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN THERE.

Given that much of what went wrong in the Dudley port area occurred in the let’s dump as much shit as we can as fast as we can before new laws come in 1970’s, the omens are not very good.

Unfortunately the West Midlands County Council, and largely the utterly useless Walsall Council Hazardous Waste Unit oversaw the licensing of the sites, and now as before we appear to be regressing towards the West Midlands Combined Authority, an unelected bureaucracy. As part of this we are to get a mayor, a position that was also not elected by the choice of the people but by the clamour of politicians and their business chums wanting to get their hands on large amounts of central Government money.

The two likely candidates to fill this role, who do not even live in the area, for the Conservatives, ex John Lewis boss Andy Street, and ex Labour politician Sion Simon do not appear distinguishable in their ideas for house building.

Street wants to protect the so called “green belt” by cramming in more housing to diminish peoples quality of lives in urban areas. Simple Simon wants to do broadly the same- so why should anyone in these areas vote for this? Oldbury and Tipton may as well be merged if the green wedge between the two are soiled with more housing to form the new “OLDTIP”- which would actually be a good description of what occurred in both. Furthermore, talk of outside influences from London shaping local agendas are thrown out of the window with the idea that The black country is now a part of “Greater Birmingham”. This term was even touted at a seminar held in The South of France to sell this preposterous Garden city idea.

It isn’t the area they want to change , it is the name and identity of the area altogether. What difference does it make if those with the purse strings are in Birmingham instead of London? But you can stick as much lipstick on a pig as you want, it’s what’s underneath that defines it.

When first embarking on the odyssey that was determining what was poisoning the wildfowl at Rattlechain lagoon, what struck me most was the history of the company behind it. I say “the history” because as I would soon determine through my own investigations, most of this “local history” was in fact fake history , and even worse present day propaganda.

There is no doubt that Albright and Wilson in Oldbury made no secret of blowing their own trumpet locally, and had many political friends who gave them opportunities to prosper.  A so called “residents” group attended by a couple of councillors and people from organisations whom they at from time to time have donated money to can hardly be said to be representative of scrutiny as to  what they actually make and do down Trinity Street way.

Much of “100 years of phosphorus making” , the Centennial history of the Quaker firm is a manufactured fanciful account of the Albright and Wilson families up to 1951. Much of this has since been regurgitated, though crucially never really questioned nor examined by local historians who have written their own books tying in recollections of a few people with archive photographs. Now I have no problem with this, as it can be challenged, but when in one instance Albright and Wilson themselves paid for the print run of a local history book and were allowed to put forward an advertising piece on their present day activities written by their public relations officer, I have a very big problem with that being called “local history”. It is propaganda product placement not history, and a one sided unchallenged view.

Recently it appears that once again the name Albright and Wilson has been regurgitated in the form of a lottery funded project called “Made in Oldbury”. Once again the same names appear to be at the fore and it also appears to be a politically supported idea with Sandwell councils socialists on board.

Now I have no issue with all industrial activity in Oldbury or many of its firms. But I do have a massive problem with eulogising a company as poison crooked and polluting as that founded in Trinity Street, not least as for much of the latter half of the Twentieth Century they were not even British owned. First the American Tenneco, and then of course taken over and consumed by French Rhodia and now Belgian Solvay.

There appears to be a growing desire by authorities to remove peoples knowledge about what they can find out about the contamination history of their local area. I have previously highlighted how The Environment Agency have removed key information about hazardous waste licences from their website, offering a fraudulent review of what took place there, perhaps only serving the brownfield development industry who of course are so eager to build houses on any available piece of land, they care little about what lies beneath.

Add to this Sandwell council’s planning website. It was once possible to look at all of the so called “Hazardous Substance ” consents, granted by the council to the firm to store and use extremely dangerous substances, including chlorine and white phosphorus at their factory. I asked an initial freedom of information question to the council some time ago, yet their reply at the time was totally unhelpful and had to be challenged. There is no doubt they were trying to hide what was stored on that site from public gaze. The details of the consents however were finally revealed on whatdotheyknow.com.

Not only was this site a previous Ministry of Supply factory but in addition to the banned warfare WMD, one of the main chemicals manufactured and used on site -Phosphorus trichloride is the precursor to manufacturing VX nerve gas. It is also possible to use Trimethyl phosphite, also manufactured at Trinity Street.

It now appears that all of the background details for these Haz substance consents, including the committee reports and also the health and safety information submitted about the substances has also been removed from the planning website by persons or persons unknown within Sandwell council- because this is what you now get!

So who? and for what reason have they rubbed these out?

Luckily, I saved quite a few of the important documents, and so I have now made these available again on this website where the Sandwell council have acted to deny people this information about the Oldbury polluter.

HS/008

HS/009

HS/020

HS/021

HS/026

HS/032

HS/034

My attempt to release the  report into their toxic assault on the area in 2009 is currently with the Information commissioners office, but whatever the outcome I will be releasing far more detailed information about the production of phosphine at this site into the public domain than in the HSE’s redacted version.

Could it be that the authorities are more interested in trying to sell off land in derelict condition at surrounding sites for more housing, and deny future residents in this “consultation zone” any insight into what is on their doorstep? But there again despotic regimes do like using human shields to cover the tracks of chemical weapon producing establishments, (whilst also being total hypocrites in blaming others “by proxy” about chemical weapon manufacture and subsequent use.)

Derelict land at Mill Lane would make “first class” housing , with a factory with multiple hazardous waste substance consents within spitting distance.

An interesting ministerial statement made by William Hague, then Foreign Secretary in 2014 reads as follows.

Following Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) last year, and as part of the process to eliminate its chemical weapons (CW) programme, Syria provided a confidential declaration to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) which lists a number of states from which it obtained supplies of goods used in its CW programme.

The information in Syria’s declaration is classified under the terms of the CWC. However, I wish to inform the House that a review of our own files suggests that there were a number of exports of chemicals to Syria by UK companies between 1983 and 1986 which were likely to have been diverted for use in the Syrian programme.

These exports were:

–       several hundred tonnes of the chemical dimethyl phosphite (DMP) in 1983 and a further export of several hundred tonnes in 1985;

–       several hundred tonnes of trimethyl phosphite (TMP) in 1986;

–       a smaller quantity of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in 1986 through a third country.

All these chemicals have legitimate uses, for example in the manufacture of plastics and pharmaceuticals. However, they can also be used in the production of sarin.  DMP and TMP can also be used for the production of the nerve agent VX. That is why the export of such goods is strictly prohibited under the UK export regime introduced since the 1980s and progressively strengthened.

From the information we hold, we judge it likely that these chemical exports by UK companies were subsequently used by Syria in their programmes to produce nerve agents, including sarin.”

Well I never!

So from within Governance there appears to be a tendency to cover up what has gone before, and from within the community an attempt to rewrite the history and romanticise it  as though all the bad things were never there at all. Many people made money out of Oldbury and then buggered off- Albright and Wilson being one of the many and leaving behind only a toxic legacy. How proud they all must be in Langley of the creation of  a made banned rat poison and chemical weapon. One can also largely determine that not as much is obviously being made now in Oldbury. 😆

These type of arty-farty affairs do not do justice to the victims of industrial pollution. An old works photograph and an anecdote does not show what happened on the hospital ward to those in later life exposed  to what was “made in Oldbury”. I used to feel some sorrow for those involved in this, but on reflection they were just as much a  part in the toxic deception as the works managers -and so poetic justice. They do not show industrial pollution contaminating waterways and fish gasping for breath. They do not show abysmal air quality destroying peoples health, or certainly not toxic waste in a satellite waste dump poisoning birds.

A soppy poem or a wishy washy watercolour does not capture this suffering, which was also “Made in Oldbury”. But do the organisers of this project or its financial backers even care about detailing any of this “heritage”, or are they as before just propagandists of the chemical industry, so in love with the idea of changing nature that they are too blind to see what else their efforts did to ruin it beyond comprehension? That’s some legacy when after many decades of making in Oldbury, their dumping still scars the future landscapes of tomorrow.

Breaking history

Shock news has been released of plans to cull several fairies living at Rattlechain lagoon. The Oldbury Tinkerbells have incurred the wrath of Sandwell council and Solvay by lighting fires at the site and also playing loud music- in particular the Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl. One local councillor who did not wish to be named said “There are too many of them and I would support a limited cull innit?” “We’ve tried relocating them down South but you need a licence, and they just fly back here.” “They are taking over, and We own Oldbury, not them!”

A local resident who lives in neighbouring Callaghan Drive  added “Solvay told us that the fairies live at the bottom of our gardens and set fires regularly- that’s why they need to put up so many cctv cameras to catch them out for evidence.” “When we first moved here they assured us that the site contained the stuff used in toothpaste, but with the fairies parading nightly with no clothes on, it’s been blue minty hell living here!”

HUNDREDS of fairies have invaded

Whilst at the lagoon, our photographer snapped one of the creatures, thought to be a blue stripper perched on a bramble. He was even able to tempt it onto the end of his finger using a half cut grape.

Also found at the scene of the Johns Lane site was King/Queen of the white phosphorus tramp fairies Tinker the great- a most volatile fellow.

A Natural England spokesman confirmed ” the fairies were inadvertently released from a captive collection in Bournville and have spread across the West Midlands and beyond. They are known to have flown and also caught cross channel ferries to France breeding with the rare black headed ladyboy fairies there. ” “In addition if swallowed they can produce belching in small children.” We encourage authorities to put up fairy tails where they persist which appears to scare them and make them go away.”

Solvay declined to comment about spreading fairy tails at their Oldbury Toxic Hazardous waste site.

A recent freedom of information request submitted to West Midlands fire service reveals the shocking figure that the recycling industry, founded largely on a lie costs the taxpayer.

A “lie” because recycling of paper, metal etc has in recent times been used to suggest that this generates substantial electricity for homes and thus everyone’s bills will somehow go down. They haven’t because they continue to rise and they don’t because the only people racking in the money are the operators of these wretched fire hazard zones.

There have been many instances in The West Midlands of massive scale fires occurring on these so called “recycling sites”, and in some cases the same charlatan operators having fires on multiple sites. Top of this list have to be EMR recycling who recover metal.

A request that I looked at dealt with a news item put on the West Midlands Fire service website entitled “recycling boss praises our firefighters.” This was a piece concerning the aftermath of a recycling site fire at Trinity Street, adjacent to the major chemical hazard area at the Solvay factory.

WMFS at Weir recycling- picture WMFS

This facility run by Weir Waste was passed by Sandwell council’s planning committee in 2010, and was on the site of the former Chance and Hunt works which later became ICI and then “rosier transport services”.

“Some 200 tonnes of cardboard and plastics in a recycling plant were destroyed, and another 100 tonnes of baled plastics and cardboard stored outside were also involved.

Water for the incident was relayed via a High Volume Pumping Unit (HVPU) from a nearby canal.”

Personally I don’t think this facility should exist, and I made that clear in my objection to that application at the time. Read the council’s delegated decision below.

DC_10_52924-DELEGATED_REPORT-500319

A visit to this site after the fire incident revealed a “clean up” operation under progress. A wily patrol dog came up to me waging its tail before deciding to eat nearly one half of a loaf of bread that I had about my person. The ravenous canine obviously had the run of the street, and lives amongst the baled garbage and general rubbish stored there.

Trinity Street- The infamous Albright and Wilson clock tower, now Solvay in the distance

Pile of unsightly junk left from the fire

Another pile of unsightly junk

But this fire- one of many in the Oldbury area in recent history and also the article raised some interesting questions about just how many of these major fire hazard sites had gone up in smoke, each time a major hazard to life and environmental health.

“West Midlands Fire Service attended 21 incidents at waste sites in 2015/16

• Tackling and cleaning up fires at waste recycling sites cost up to £16m a year nationally”

My FOI request asked the following, and after a little delay I did get a comprehensive response from the fire service with a detailed xls spreadsheet.

“Could I request the location and site operators of the 21 incidents referred to at waste sites in 2015/16 to date.
Could I also request the same for the years 2012-2015 starting from 1st January 2012.

“The search for this kind of fires involves manually searching through incidents for the relevant keywords – recycling, waste, metal, paper, scrap
– The data attached includes primary and secondary fires at recycling/waste facilities between January 2012 and June 2016.  More incidents including from in comprehensive search.
– This data includes incidents at Landfill Sites.”
I would like to request the total if known or estimate if you have any recorded information of such as to the cost to WMFS of tackling and cleaning up fires at waste recycling sites between 2012-2016 to date.

“We do not have a recorded cost for individual Waste/Recycling Fires therefore it is exempt under Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section (1).
However if you wanted to calculate a notional cost please find attached our special service call rates.  The way special service calls were costed changed in 2013 with different charges dependant on the type of vehicle responding to the incident.”
Could you also indicate if any of this cost has been met by the operators of these sites and how much?

“We do not record this information therefore it is exempt under Freedom of
Information Act 200 Section (1)”

DISCUSSION.

The data supplied reveals 189 incidents under the terms of the request dealt with by WMFS between January 2012 and Jun 2oth 2016. On average the fire service spent 37 hours 18 minutes at these fires, and this totalled 7051 hours 23 minutes and 29 seconds! This means the equivalent of over 293 days spent tackling fires from this industry.

Costs per hour for specialist equipment was also broken down in detail.

The charges for subsequent years can be seen to have obviously increased in the following years from the supplied xls table.

The list of sites and operators reveal the true cost of this appalling industry at work from the 189 incidents. The Weir waste incident for example on 27th April 2016 wasted if you’ll excuse the pun over 172 hours  of WMFS time and involved a reported 80 firefighters.

But this wasn’t the first time that the Trinity Street company had had a fire as revealed in the table. On 21st August 2013 there was a fire which totalled over 4 hours. Trinity Street clearly appears to occupy a great deal of time for the local fire service, and no matter which way you try to spin it, the folly of locating any new homes near this major hazard area is clearly quite bonkers.

Video Jim McNaughton Vimeo

EMR RECYCLING

One of EMR’s Fire hit sites

By far the most identifiable culprit is European Metal Recycling across a range of sites across the West Midlands. Their record is an absolute shambles of an operation and that cannot be denied from these findings. Reports of these incidents across the area can be found HERE  HERE and  HERE

As well as this it is clearly not just a regional issue with this company as can be revealed HERE HERE HERE and HERE.

Video Jim McNaughton Vimeo

In total EMR fires have cost West Midlands fire service a total of nearly 1000 wasted hours. The cost must have been tremendous to the tax payer- and the fact that our council tax bill for the service increases every single year without fail is also noted. Quite frankly as a non driver without a car I couldn’t give a shit what EMR do as I am not a consumer contributing to their glorified Steptoe and Son tatter  industry- but I severely resent paying the tab towards their shambolic practices.

Plenty more to go up in smoke

JAYPLAS FIRE.

One of the largest fires in the country, and the largest that WMFS have ever dealt with occurred on  June 31st 2013 . I reported on some of the aftermath of this at the time on this blog.

A WMFS summary of this incident can be found below.

The stats on this video reveal

• 14 million litres of water used in the first 12 hours
• 19,000 tonnes of CO2 generated by the fire
• 6000 fire fighter hours

and the warning that there are 57 recycling centre plants in The West Midlands.

The idea that all of this was somehow caused by a sky lantern and is not reflective on the sheer incompetence of this industry is banal and wrong. There were no sprinklers on this site, and for this everyone involved in the planning process at this site should have borne the total cost of their failure.

There have been subsequent fires at recycling centres since this request, and depressingly even more plans to build more plants, with some areas such as the West Bromwich and Oldbury border now becoming national centres for the countries collective garbage. So West Brom will soon have its very own used nappy and tampon bank, as if there wasn’t already enough bloody shit in the town without adding to it soiled bum gags and “ladies pencils.”

Whoever asked the local population for their views on this, and if they wanted to live next to a furnace centre where pollution in the sky is once again leading to the term “the black country” being relevant? This is not good for public health due to the nature of particulates released, and certainly not for the environment or water quality either.

We also have many so called “transfer stations” popping up, many with little or no approval and these deteriorate into waste piles such as the ones in Nelson Street in Oldbury.

We need to stop the expanse of these plants by stopping the manufacture of the waste that fuels them. “BAGS FOR LIFE”  need to be more than bags for a week and fully biodegradable materials should be sort. The disposable culture is one which only originated after the second world war, and we need to go back to something like that era to stop the senseless throwaway culture. If this means job losses in chemicals, plastic and automotive industries then great because they are all polluters and all of them are costing us more than just the earth.

For many weeks last year there was a mysterious on off series of developments on the reprofiled North Embankment that abuts the Birmingham Canal Mainline. Firstly there was some “vegetation management” as they like to call it.

It was clear that a trench was being dug along the length of the slope, and then later that electric cables were being laid here.

At this point in July, Rhodia were still discharging water to the canal, but via the pontoon pump in the main lagoon, and still inexplicably not from the so called “clean side lagoon” that the pier pump had been sited by to replace the longstanding pipe that ran along the old causeway path.

cables

Trenches

warning tape

It then became clear that some woodwork activity was also being added into the embankment for some form of foundations. Then came some metal posts. More lighting I thought?

There was also tinkering with the existing cctv column, granted planning permission in 2010- DC/10/51860 Proposed construction of a 10m high column equipped with a CCTV camera- a little late perhaps for trying to observe site activity when they had been actively tipping toxic waste for over 70 years!

See the application below

http___planapps.sandwell.gov.uk_WAM_doc_Report-414833.pdf_extension=

“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

But it quickly became apparent that this was not another “back to the future” weather experiment, but the addition of two more cctv columns. Now why would they possibly need those you might ask?

Not only cctv cameras but also loud halers by the looks of it located on the posts, and now additionally on the main entrance post as well.

In 2010 the application made the following statement.

“Cor Stryker light!”

It was claimed in the report that Rhodia had stated that the camera would not be able to be used at night, but if I am not very much mistaken, it would appear that not only has a loud haler been added but also some form of infra red detector- which means that it is fully operational at night now. Of course in 2010 they were still referring to the place as the preposterous “rattlechain mere” in their submitted plan below.

http___planapps.sandwell.gov.uk_WAM_doc_Drawing-406754.pdf_extension=

So much for the planning process then when I made enquiries to Sandwell council they told me the following.

“permission would be required for any additional pole mounted cctv on the site”

So this appears to confirm that Rhodia do exactly what they like without valid planning permission.

No doubt this will be any trouble to the Trinity Street terrors as their friends in Sandwell council have been facilitating things for them for many years without any serious questions or scrutiny ever being applied. But what are they all trying to keep out or in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnsoRheU_v8

The chances are you will never have heard of an organisation called “Business Europe”, but you will certainly have heard of many of the corporate entities and brands which are affiliated to this secretive Brussels based lobby group.

A freedom of information request to the EU by the Corporate European Observatory sheds some interesting information on how they operate, as well as providing some background on who they actually are.

Once again we have yet another profile of our old friend Mr ClamadiEU formerly CEO of Rhodia and now Solvay, who is chair of the EU lobby group CEFIC.

Clam and friends on this occasion were attending a 2016 Advisory and Support Group, CEO event and dinner being organised by Business Europe, and hosted by the Commission.

A letter from the vice president of the Commission to Business Europe sets the tone of how the two unelected bureaucracies act in tandem behind closed doors without scrutiny.

“Our agreed programme gives us an opportunity to update you on the European Commission’s work, and to understand the current concerns of business leaders to inform our policymaking.”

Well so much for democratic decisions being made in the EU there then, and more a case of we’ll scratch your back if you scratch ours.

It is only when we get to the disclosed overview of the extended dinner and cocktail jolly that we see just how “the business community” attempt to sway the policy of democracy by the most undemocratic means possible.

“The message from business leaders is that these are difficult times for the EU and the world, and the EU has a valuable and important role to play. The pace of change is fast and getting faster, with transformations in technologies, business models, demographics and politics interacting with global trends including global migration, populism, and anti-trade & antiglobalisation sentiment. “

The term “populism” in this context has been often defined in a derogatory sense by the liberal left elite and news corporations like the BBC who attempt to undermine the will of the stupid people by claiming that it is somehow misguided and that they as educated appear to know better. This conceited viewpoint shows just how out of touch these people really are and how they do not represent anything but their own selfish monetary interests and policies of the few.

It ends on the following note

“Businesses called for the European Commission to create a positive, compelling and inclusive vision for Europe to counter populism and keep Europe on the path of jobs, growth, stability and prosperity. This would require national governments to stop demonising the EU, and to articulate what they want to achieve through their membership and participation. The discussion highlighted a need to move beyond the current discourse to elaborate what kind of Europe we want to leave for our children.” 

It’s time Business kept its nose out of democratic decisions such as The decision by the UK to Leave this club altogether. The European Union was founded on a trade lie and the thing they all fear most is the will of the people making decisions that they cannot control with manipulation.

It’s always good to be prepared for some dirty business

Albright and Wilson’s stench extended beyond Oldbury in the West Midlands to up North in the coastal area of Whitehaven. The chemical firm Marchon Products Limited had been based in the town for many years producing raw materials for detergents, and then expanding onto a disused tar plant before “the Quakers” took over there in 1955 and made it a subsidiary producing the detergent raw material STTP- Sodium  Tripolyphosphate. Solway Chemicals Limited, another subsidiary were also producing sulphuric acid from this year from a plant next to the Marchon site. Their main concerns were liquid fertilisers and sodium laurel sulphate- a toothpaste foaming agent.

STTP needed phosphoric acid as an essential agent, produced by “the wet process”. This method is outlined from a 1955 Albright and Wilson publication “The manufacture and uses of phosphorus.”

A £5 million sulphuric acid plant extension completed in 1967 made Albright and Wilson the producer of one tenth of the UK’s total sulphuric acid output. 1968 saw the start up of a new wet phosphoric acid plant at Marchon, replacing the two previous ones. Levels of chemcials produced at the site are reported to have been 350,000 tons per annum of Sulphuric acid, 350,000 tons of cement, 165,000 tons phosphoric acid and 170,000 of STTP.

Whitehaven harbour was utilised to deliver raw materials using specially built vessels, which finally ceased in 1992.

But around the late 1960’s with AW’s disastrous loss making Long Harbour venture, the rot appeared to begin to set in for Marchon works as a site. In particular the environmental issues associated with other Albright and Wilson sites began to show a familiar pattern.

Pollution grime

Pollution from this large site appeared like a sore pimple from an outpouring of froth associated with the phosphate manufacture into the Irish Sea. More dangerous were heavy metal laden effluent from the phosphate rock impurities. For many years it had been a source of constant complaint from residents yet Albright and Wilson batted these away as it always did with talk of “jobs being put at risk” and claims it met allowed consents- all the same bullshit they also used when complaints were made about their Oldbury activities.

One of the most infamous associations with this site is the ground breaking prosecution of the company by Greenpeace– at a time when they were a genuine pollution busting environmental charity and not devoted to the pet cause of a failed US presidential candidate.

In 1990 they successfully took Albright and Wilson to court, winning a private prosecution brought under the new Water Act 1989. Whitehaven magistrates fined them a poultry £2000 and greenpeace costs awarded of £20,000.

But Albright and Wilson were always a company in total denial about their disgusting environmental record and the following whinging, whining trite garbage is what they published in Albright World at the time, desperately attempting to convince their workforce that Greenpeace were in the wrong and that these environmental assassins were trying to close the plant down when they attempted to block the discharge pipe into the sea.

The comments made by works director in this article are utterly delusional, “We believe the sample taken was not representative of our normal discharge” he wailed, with “profound knowledge” ,appearing to blindly believe that any transgression of the law should not apply to them. We also get those invented no/low risk “calculations” of theirs, which we have also recently seen offered by Rhodia in their defence of a white phosphorus/phosphine factory fire which were not accepted by the Health and Safety Executive.

We have a similar airbrushed version of events offered by Hugh Podger in his “Albright and Wilson The Last 50 years” and “Marchon The Whitehaven Chemical works by Alan Routledge.” The latter book is fine if you enjoy black and white photos of machinery and people standing in front of them viewed through rose tinted glasses, but the garish reality of long standing environmental pollution is not part of the colour scheme.

When Greenpeace later blocked the pipe discharging the grime into the sea, they were totally justified in doing so, and if I had been around then knowing what I do now about this firms activities, then I would have joined them to happily be arrested for taking a stand.

When challenged on their environmental record, Albright and Wilson and then Rhodia, basically the very same people, consistently were in denial about their activities being harmful and their blind arrogance as “scientists” believed they knew better than anyone else.

An excellent account of the general air pollution coming out of Whitehaven around this time is documented in a Guardian article from 1988, which is archived on the Fluoride Action Network website. It is entitled “a host of roasted daffodils” and details how plants were turned to dust by the factory emissions, as well as the longstanding human health risks which are still there and will be for many decades.

“Marchon is licensed by the North West Water Authority to pour 93 tonnes of uranium into the Irish Sea every year, as well as 27 tonnes of cadmium and 9.3 tonnes of arsenic. Tests carried out by Greenpeace show that the composition of radioactivity found in Whitehaven harbour precludes it being from Sellafield. For five years now, scientists have claimed that cadmium has been a cause of genetic damage. Large doses can destroy cell manufacture and repair.”

“In April over 100 parents and schoolchildren suffered nausea and coughing when a cloud of sulphur dioxide acid leaked from the factory and descended on them as they were leaving nearby Kells infant school. In July, 200 cars in the factory carpark were pitted and stripped of paint after a second acid leak.”

All of this appears to be of a very similar story to the anecdotes of residents living around the Langley area, and also the denials of an operator who appeared to care little about the health concerns associated with the toxic chemicals which it produced. That it “provides jobs for the area” that would otherwise not be there appears to be the standard political shillers comment for justifying appalling and blind eye turning health and safety faux pas.

Of the manner in which it treated its workforce:

“Only relatively recently, local people have become determined to know more about the effects the plant is having on their health. But employees are frightened to speak out for fear of losing their jobs in an area of high unemployment.

One former employee said he found that childhood asthma returned when he began working in the factory’s acid plant. He says the company never admitted that his work was the cause of his disease, but equally it did not insist he return to his job. The man, who still wishes to remain anonymous despite having left, interpreted this as a sign that the company knew it would be difficult to deny his work was the cause. But there are constant denials by the company when the plant is blamed for ill health.”

What one can also take from this is the not uncommon observation concerning how Albright and Wilson treated its community with contempt from a resident who states in the article

“The medical profession has not been remarkably active in trying to identify the source of high asthma, foetal mortality, and genetic abnormality rates which have been found in and around the town. During the past five years rare syndromes have been found in babies born in Whitehaven and nearby Mirehouse. These diseases have led to either mental disorders, cleft palates, cysts, or facial abnormalities. There are also abnormal levels of severe spasticity, premature births, the transposition of body vessels, poor speech, and acute myloid leukaemia…..

….Sheila Smith, who runs the family advice centre in nearby Monkwray, said: ‘It’s the accountability which in some ways concerns me more than the pollution. The thing we have found quite amazing is that Albright and Wilson is a totally closed organisation.

‘Trying to get the company involved in the community is impossible. You just meet with closed doors. As a result, there’s an awful feeling of apathy and despair. The health authority also turns a blind eye, even though this part of the town has the highest death rate from heart disease among women in the northern region, and is among the worst for general health.’

One can perhaps see why after the Greenpeace incident and concerns like this, Albright and Wilson attempted a charm PR offensive with “open days“, which of course, were more like an advertisement for what they made than a factory tour of any real benefit to the put upon polluted.

Political grime.

As at their Oldbury headquarters in the West Midlands, it is apparent that Albright and Wilson at Whitehaven were well represented in political circles. The May/June 1986 edition of Albright World reported that the new mayor of Copeland- the borough in which the works sat, was an employee, and not only that but boasted that he was the fourth employee mayor of that pocket borough to hold the title!

There may well have been others that followed him, but how can anyone really believe that having top councillors onside- especially in matters relating to planning and environmental concerns was not likely to be a very beneficial arrangement for all concerned- with protecting the company polluter?

And then there is the former MP – John Cunningham- now “Baron Cunningham of Felling”. Between 1970-1983 he was MP for the Whitehaven constituency, which then became the Copeland constituency where he would serve another 22 years as the elected representative.  He deserves a special mention in how a political friend “who never worked for the company” was actually working for it for many years.

The following article appeared in Albright World, where the then fledgling Labourite was joined on a factory tour of the works by the useless former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan who held talks with union officials and managers- Orwell’s “man to pig and pig to man” comes to mind here .

 

“He told them that Dr Cunningham, who was his Parliamentary Private Secretary during Mr Callaghan’s government, was “constantly preaching about A+W’s virtues and is a very good advertisement for you”

With this type of ear to the top man, one wonders what the good doctor was actually diagnosing him with about the wretched company, but it is plain to see in the subsequent years that he persisted in this “advertisement” shillery for AW.

“Bottom’s up” champagne socialist

In 1980, he would go on to become a paid “industrial policy adviser” for Albright and Wilson, a title he held throughout his time as shadow environment secretary until he  became Minister for Agriculture, fisheries and food under the odious Blair administration. So back to pouring “advertisements” into the ear of the premier. Of course this would be short lived, as Albright and Wilson by now were  in terminal decline, so his advice cannot have been of much use in the 80’s 😆

AFTERMATH

With takeover assured, Rhodia did not waste much time in flogging off the Whitehaven site to “Huntsman”- another metamorphosising pillock of a chemical manufacturer. In June 2005, time was called on the entire site, as it shut down for good, with Rhodia diverting its operations abroad.

There are some interesting footnotes to the fallen polluting behemoth of Whitehaven available on the internet.

An excellent urban exploration of the way in which Albright and Wilson/Rhodia and its associates left the site before demolition, almost as though it was Chenobyl can be found HERE.  Another on the excellent 28 days later website gives a ghostly tour of the abandoned factory.

from 28 days later- a discarded map of the AW Whitehaven site

It is clear that this post apocalyptic scenario is one very familiar with Albright and Wilson and the manner in which it operated as a company- especially at its demise into the French hands of Rhodia.

Uncharacterised chemicals of all types and colours appear to be scattered everywhere mixing freely with mould alongside office equipment and personal identification tags serving as wafers in the toxic cream. How little the company must have valued the personal data protection of its staff to leave the site such as this!

A freedom of information request from Sarah Turnbull in 2012 asks the following.

Clearly the Environment agency will be monitoring this area for many years to come  this, one of the many Albright’s bastards.

From the perspective of an ex worker at the site there is a rather whimsical ditty concerning the demise of the works at Whitehaven which can be found below, but it is somewhat unusual for the usually brainwashed ex workers of an Albright and Wilson company to be somewhat critical of both the employer and the union facilitating the destruction of the operation. It is quite clear that longstanding Marchon workers resent Albright and Wilson and Rhodia’s control of operations, as it began to unravel. Ultimately, with the type of chemicals that it made and which will no doubt persist for several decades, what one “couldn’t believe what they’d done” is how they managed to get away with it for so long.

And so to the inevitable talk of “regeneration” from toxic crap. We have this document entitled “West Whitehaven Draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) February 2012″, which can be read at the link below.

42117105313

So when politicians are no longer able to spin their PR about jobs being vital from polluting industry, thus they like to play lego land and  still pretend that the toxic legacy does not appear by wanting to build “quality homes” on or near to contaminated land. We do however get the truth of the past in this document about this dirty polluting shambles of a chemical site too late from this self serving council, now that its chemical factory paymasters are no longer  there in situ.

“The public perception of the area locally is often poor due to the recent history of the industrial / chemical activities of the Marchon plant.  The environmental impacts of the production processes resulted in unpleasant odours, gas clouds, and residue deposits on cars and gardens, as well as ground water contamination leading to foam licks and radioactive deposits in the sea.  Visual impacts, noise and lighting pollution affected local residential amenity as did the heavy road traffic generated by the many tanker trips taking raw materials to the site from the harbour.”

Now when did Jack Cunningham and co ever admit to any of this at the time?

There is a parliamentary by-election in the Copeland constituency looming with the departure of Cunningham’s successor as MP there Jamie Reed who is taking up the position of  “head of development and community relations” at the Sellafield Nuclear plant in the area. One could strongly argue that this former PR man for the company never left the job during his time as an MP. Perhaps voters should look very closely at the cv’s of the candidates for any grimy links with longstanding pollution.

Incredible to believe that it has been four years since this blog was first started and the long thought buried secrets of an Oldbury chemical company and its toxic tip began to leak on the internet after decades of fake smoke cover.

Back at the start of 2013 there were works planned to start to install a geotextile membrane in the larger lagoon and we attended an open day event where Rhodia and their contractors tried to spin their “improvement works” to local residents.

Of course after 14 years of trying to get to what was causing the bird deaths, we were extremely sceptical about anything they were trying to peddle. We still are.

The works were tailored to suit rhodia’s closure plan for the site, a legal requirement which has seen a slight alteration to their existing hazardous waste site licence.

The lagoon itself has certainly undergone visual changes above the surface, but retains the feature of “what lies beneath”. Gone are the reed beds where many dying birds gasped their last desperate breaths and which became their final resting place. Gone are the pontoons and discharge pipes where Albright and Wilson and Rhodia poisoned the environment and wildlife with their cheap and unsafe disposal method.

Wildfowl rarely visit the site now, and the odds of seeing a swan on there appear to be at there lowest since I started monitoring wildfowl 20 years ago. But too late for the many that perished, and the prospect of whatever transpires with what happens in and around this site still continues to threaten the entire area with an inevitable quick cheap fix solution, such as filling it all in with foundry sand.

Whatever the future, and though the technology of doing so may change, it will be recorded for posterity, because the camera never lies.