What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

 

This is the second of three posts concerning this abandoned former waste disposal lake in Oldbury, the first of which can be read HERE. It also serves as a warning about the so called “brownfield” sites promoted by certain politicians using public money to put right dire private company charades.

The demise of Accles and Pollock, and their “Apollo Sports” brand appears to have affected their operations at their Paddock works lagoon site in terms of limiting their activities. I am not sure however as to why it had apparently appeared to have been allowed to have continued for so long- especially after the creation of the Environment Agency in 1996.

In apparent receivership, their receivers PWC were sent the following Section 41 notice by The Environment Agency on 12/2/2002.

SECTION41 NOTICE

This appears to be more about failure to pay the EA money, rather than failure to operate such a disgusting site (which was the regulator’s failure), to the tune of £33,225. This suspended the licence to tip waste until the debt had been paid.

 

Some relevant information is contained in the Companies house receivers report (April 2000) below.

companies_house_document

 

 

Concern had been expressed however publicly about this mothballed site well before the EA stepped in as debt collectors. The following article is taken from the 29/5/2001 Express and Star where Conservative Councillor Bill Archer was calling for a probe into the acid waste lagoon. It is interesting to note that Bill Archer was a Wednesbury councillor, but at this time got involved in many areas where the local labour councillors failed to act or ask any questions. I would state that in Oldbury ward, there were and remain many questions about such historic hazardous waste dumps, and the way in which they have been effectively abandoned, and why political action or criticism of these industrial concerns has been so mute?

The article confirms that the company had gone bust in 2000, but the lagoon and its contents had sat idle. The EA claim that no leakage into controlled waters had taken place, but I am somewhat sceptical that the EA were even monitoring for this given their officer’s abysmal record at the time at rattlechain lagoon as well as elsewhere in the local area.

Local environmental campaigner Fred Hadley had found that permission to tip at the site was still valid, despite the company no longer being active. The EA confirmed that the licence had not been surrendered. (I have never been sure as to if this Fred Hadley was the same ex-employee of Albright and Wilson, but perhaps not).

“Anybody could buy it and carry on dumping.”

The article also states the quantities of materials allowed to be deposited.

• 396 tonnes of hydrochloric acid
• 15 tonnes of sulphuric acid
• 900 tonnes of acid and polluted water.

The failure of Sandwell council to comment is also noted in this regard, when they allowed the said operation to continue for many years. 

Fred Hadley had in fact been involved in other matters in the local area including Allsopps Quarry. He also spoke out about the tipping misery continuing at the former Duport’s tip development area by rattlechain lagoon being extended. It is therefore quite ironic as to what transpired with the acid lake next, and the man must be hailed as some form of prophet in this regard, as someone did come along and dump more waste, that entity being the same one who had despoiled the land at both Coneygree in Tipton, as well as the site he had commented on in Tividale.

In 2004 Mintworth appeared on the scene, obviously looking for a brand-new dumping opportunity to offload more sand and associated into a vacant hole. They had at this point remember achieved their twin peaks in the local area already with Duport and Coneygree, (without finalising either for anything), but why not go for the triple!

This application would be numbered DC/04/42934. 

It is interesting to note that in correspondence form B submitted with this application, the owners of the site are listed as “CLEEVE INVESTMENTS LIMITED”– a company registered in Jersey. But who exactly were their directors? We will look at this company and their activities in the third part of this instalment. 

It appears from correspondence that early discussions and meetings had taken place with some of the key players in the SMBC planning department at this time, principally John “it’s a crap site for residential” Baylay, and Tony Rice. Both of these individuals would be heavily involved with Mintworth’s desire to acquire planning permission to build houses on the former Tividale sewage works, (“the crap site for residential”), and the council opposition to this in light of the adjacency to rattechain lagoon. This matter was ongoing at this time, and there is no doubt that solicitors acting for Mintworth are mischievous in their line of questioning in attempting to trip up the SMBC planning duo in respect of this, using this separate planning application vehicle.

There is no mention of “calcium phosphate sludge” being used at all at the Apollo lagoon in its entire history, and this was never a part of the waste from this site. It is of course a reference to the fake waste profile put forward by Albright and Wilson/ Rhodia at rattlechain- which was heavily contaminated by other hazardous chemicals mixed in with this. This is a pathetic question from this law firm, as is the lead on about restoration. Neither has anything to do with this application- and not of rattlechain either. They are not therefore “SEPARATE AND DISCRETE MATTERS” but a ruse to be used at a future planning enquiry against the council.

There is then the bizarre claim that Mintworth were considering tipping asbestos waste at this site, which I think is absolute bollocks. There is obviously more at play with this question, and I am not entirely sure what they were getting at here in respect of the Apollo lagoon itself. The council would be very unlikely to grant such permission for this type of material, or if the EA would even allow it either.

 

Robert Lee of SMBC eventually wrote a reply to this nonsense in September, perhaps thinking carefully about the answers and in light of the fact of the ongoing issue with the council’s refusal of the sewage works scheme and upcoming planning enquiry.

The points to take here are

• There is no established use for this site, which preceded the 1948 Town and Country Planning Act.
• The theoretical dumping of asbestos would need a planning permission.
• The council had contacted the environment agency who were seeking more information about their plans.
• Lee ends on the note that responses were given in “good faith”, knowing full well they would be taken and used against the council in the future by the recipients without a doubt.

 

In the following letter dated 16th March 2004, the EA responds to John Baylay , this deals with calcium phosphate, (nothing to do with this application whatsoever) but is interesting in its statements from a rattlechain perspective.

DC_04_42934-ENVIRONMENT_AGENCY_COMMENTS-449611

 

The type of material deposited in rattlechain lagoon was from the waste processes of their factory site, and so would be classed as “hazardous waste” given that it contained just that. The percentage within that is irrelevant, as is the fact that if this were pure calcium phosphate- a commercial material as highlighted, Rhodia would not be throwing it away but selling it. As the process of recovery of this material is not cost effective, it means that the sludge is hazardous. This little stunt from Mintworth and their solicitors was not really very clever and did not help their cause.

There are reasons why Mintworth were pursuing this (i) Mintworth trying to get an opinion on the nature of waste they claimed was being dumped at rattlechain from the EA/council perspective.

(ii) to overcome Rhodia’s/Eversheds objections potentially to the sewage works scheme- they would have another alternative site to dump into- as a potential land exchange deal with Mintworth?

(iii) Did they think that they could fill the Apollo lagoon with calcium phosphate themselves as a side line?

The application details are listed below. N.B The “inert material” is not specified, but we all know that it would not be cottage cheese.  😆

There is very little information provided in the received form dated 6th July 2004, especially as to what end use was being considered.

DC_04_42934-FULL__MAJOR_-616265

A supporting letter from the agent of Bea Landscape Design, whom I believe have direct family connection to those at Mintworth can be read below.

DC_04_42934-SUPPORTING_LETTER_FROM_AGENT-449610

The proposed contours of BEA can be found below.

DC_04_42934-PROPOSED_CONTOURS-22681

There is a transport statement submitted which can be read below about how the proposed material would be delivered to the site, in light of it being in a major commercial vehicle and business area- not least the council tip over the road.

DC_04_42934-SUPPORTING_LETTERS-449609

There are two interesting observations in this document-

(i) the proposed number of loads infilling this site per hour at 15, though it is not stated where they were coming from or from what distance- this causing more issues outside of the immediate area itself?

(ii) The proposed timescale that the works would be taking place in- i.e “between 3 and 4 years”. We of course know Mintworth’s failure to deliver schemes to planning permission timescale at both Coneygre, and certainly at the Duport/sewage works debacle which lasted over twice as long as proposed– and so it would prove with this also!

The council appeared to have their own concerns, and these were allegedly updated in 2005, which can be read below.

DC_04_42934-TRANSPORT_STATEMENT_ADDENDUM-449604

Once again, we get yet another report from Sladen Associates, (yawn) who appear in every Mintworth planning application praising the benefits of tipping foundry sand into holes, without any apparent fallout or concern in doing so.

There is a history of the site blended with a very basic summary of the “acidic” water they claim was dumped into here. As evidenced by the site licence, there was far more going on than this, but this didn’t suit the proposal to infill.

More concerningly, we get exactly the same delay at dealing with mine shaft issues and settlement as I have seen with the planning applications at Coneygree. Sladen claim that these aspects are not important for this application, yet they are because you do not just go to the effort of offloading something into a hole without some end purpose in mind? Or do you if you are just dumping a waste material?

They note “potential” for some ground and ground water contamination  🙄 and even have the guile to mention foundry sand, so oft used by their clients for similar schemes, and note the contamination of this sand with metals and organic binders. This had been pointed out in fact to their clients during discussions about the “rattlechain tip” licence in the early 1990’s.

Due to the poor controls discussed before in the weak licence for this site from 1978, and of course for decades of no licence prior to this, I think the word “potential” is rather disingenuous.

There is then the long enviro check report, which as ever pads out such reports. The most interesting thing regards this is the fact that the site is confirmed to be on top of a historic landfill site SL137, that we know of course the licence of which had never been surrendered. It is worth once again reading the licence and what it allowed, though Sladen omit such matters.

Shidas Lane lagoon waste management licence and modifications

DC_04_42934-PRELIMINARY_GEO-ENVIRONMENTAL_ASSESSMENT-22679

The following method statements were also submitted by Sladen.

DC_04_42934-ATTACHMENT_A_METHOD_STATEMENT-907300

This dealt with the three mine shafts, which it considered “not practicable to treat” prior to infilling. Why not? One would note if this was widely adopted methodology, as to why their clients had failed to achieve this at their Coneygree site, where they were also advising them in planning applications.

Further descriptions are given as to the placement of the fill which can be read below.

DC_04_42934-ATTACHMENT_B_METHOD_STATEMENT-907301

A diagram of this method statement is shown below.

DC_04_42934-PROPOSED_LAGOON_INFILLING_WORKS-907302

Though Sladen describe not disturbing the sludge within the lagoon, I am not sure that they adequately characterise what they are actually filling over.

The Environment Agency responded to the consultation below in a letter dated 23/8/2004. Their only comments at this time were standard drainage and pollution prevention issues.

DC_04_42934-ENVIRONMENT_AGENCY_COMMENTS-449611

Further letters would be received from them inviting further questions of the applicants. The letter of 30/3/2005 stated that there was a “previous” site licence which had been “disclaimed” by the liquidators.

It would therefore require a new PPC permit to undertake any infilling. They also anticipated some form of conditions to prevent pollution of contaminated lagoon water to ground water or surface waters.

DC_04_42934-ENVIRONMENT_AGENCY_CONSULTATION-449606

A further letter dated 19/5/2005 states that they had reviewed the Sladen report but had asked additional questions concerning the PPC permit which had not yet been received.

DC_04_42934-ENVIRONMENT_AGENCY_CONSULTATION-449625

The committee report of May 18th 2005 saw the following report written by John Baylay.

DC_04_42934-COMMITTEE_REPORT_AND_SUPPORTING_PLANS-176930

DC_04_42934-COMMITTEE_REPORT-158331

This decision was deferred for further information and came back on 31/8/05.

This states that the initial infilling would be with sand, yet no further information regards what was to be deposited on top of this were included. It is stated that it would not be “waste”, yet of course, foundry sand is nothing other than a waste material, and so I am not sure why Baylay et al had not challenged or asked this point to be clarified, particularly knowing exactly what Mintworth were well known for. It is further stated that the infilling would be to the levels of the surrounding land- and we of course know that Mintworth never do that as Baylay was well aware FFS!

The contaminated land team at SMBC even asked what the inert materials were on 18/5 committee report. No answer came as Baylay’s updated report states

 

 

DC_04_42934-COMMITTEE_REPORT_AND_SUPPORTING_PLANS-176930

Unsurprisingly of course, the application was passed with 22 conditions attached.

DC_04_42934-GRANT_PERMISSION_SUBJECT_TO_CONDITIONS-178522

Some of these specified that the applicants needed to state what the materials were, as well as not exceeding the proposed levels. Condition 18 especially should be noted.

“18. The finished levels shall not exceed those shown on the approved plans”

Some time passed before Sladen Associates letter regarding the conditions. This is dated 31st January 2006, and we finally are told that the inert material was to be “clean crushed rock sand” and not foundry sand. Mintworth would be starting dumping in the next month.

Also please note that they “agreed” to condition 18 in that the levels would not be exceeded, and thus committed to this condition without excuses being made. The fact that they were seeking for the conditions to be discharged after agreeing would be shown to be a disingenuous lie on that basis.

DC_04_42934-DISCHARGE_OF_PRELIMINARY_CONDITIONS_LETTER-907299

The EA response was pretty short. Given their experiences with this company over the previous two decades, was it really believable that they would comply with the conditions as passed? Past experience had shown that NOT to be the case.

Another email however from a P Langford in SMBC stated that there were still points of concern regards the works.

DC_04_42934-FURTHER_INFO_REGARDING_DISCHARGE_OF_CONDITONS_LETTER-907297 (1)

Similarly, the contaminated land team in Sandwell, who of course we know are shit, also had very little to say. All they appear to be interested in are theoretical reports claiming that nothing is amiss with the works. It is exactly this type of exercise as to why there is so much contaminated land in Sandwell to start with. As it is, I am not convinced that the likes of Baylay et al would have even studied or bothered to read or challenge anything in such, given their previous failures to do so.

DC_04_42934-CONSULTATION_RESPONSE-907293

John Baylay wrote to Sladen on 20/3/2006 confirming the discharge of several conditions.

DC_04_42934-CONFIRMATION_OF_DISCHARGE_OF_CONDITIONS-907305

We can see that in 2006, a perimeter track present around the lagoon, and infilling works apparently proceeding. As with their other sites, the greenery around the lake has been destroyed.

The following month reveals even further demise of the surroundings and the pool receding under the dune sands of Mintworth.

By 2007, as with every other Mintworth operation in the local area, there appear to have been complaints as to their methods of on site operation, as the letter below from Sandwell Council perfectly demonstrates- remember the 3-4 year timeframe for completion? Concern was expressed about the offsite spoil they were making being a danger to the highway.

By August of that year, the lagoon had dried up completely to be replaced by the vacuous mess below. The Mintworth mud pie was not getting any better and a collection of ramshackle sheds and vehicles appear to be collecting on the site.

But yet the tipping continued, well past the date it should have stopped, and well over the levels approved under the planning conditions years earlier, and which their technical agents Sladen Associates had “agreed” to- thus making both their words absolute lies and bullshit. Mintworth had once again flouted planning permissions as they had at both Rattlechain Tip (Duport’s tip in reality), and at Coneygree.

Their answer to this was once again to abuse the planning process with yet more excuses in the form of another planning application for retrospective permission.

DC/10/52117 | Variation of condition 18 of planning permission DC/04/42934 (Infill of lagoon with inert materials) to allow for the temporary raising of the approved levels so that on the land additional fill can be placed to surcharge the infill material to achieve sufficient bearing capacity. | Apollo Lagoon On The North Side Of Shidas Lane Oldbury

Condition 18 of the 2004 planning permission was remember thus:

“18. The finished levels shall not exceed those shown on the approved plans”

The initial contact sheet being handled by “Bea Landscape Design” shows their client of the same Wolverhampton address as the misspelt “Minworth Limited”. 

DC_10_52117-INITIAL_REGISTRATION_SHEET-616625

The new contour drawing by BEA is noted in that the client is now “Cleeve Investments Limited”.

DC_10_52117-PROPOSED_CONTOUR_PLAN__A1_-418293

Bea also provided a bullshit letter admitting that the loads brought onto the site had breached planning permissions. The tall story stated that the ground bearing capacity to enable future development was not satisfactory meaning that more weight from infill materials had been placed. This therefore means that Sladen Associates original engineering forecast was shite, and in that they were not competent to agree to such conditions to start with and had also misled the planning authority to discharge condition 18 on that basis. One could argue if they or their clients ever intended to stick to that condition to start with, I would say not based on their previous behaviour at their other sites where they had instigated the same modus operandi.

DC_10_52117-SUPPORTING_LETTER-418292

The planning application form is once again interesting in that the named owner of the site is the Jersey registered address for “Cleeve Investments Limited.”

DC_10_52117-SEC73M_-_MAJOR_-_VARIATIONS_OF_PERMISSIONS-606999

The council wrote to the agents stating that the application was incomplete given that the site plan was not provided. I actually wonder here if the council were getting them to commit to a red line area given their clients tendency to operate outside of agreed parameters for dumping more than agreed?

This was then supplied.

DC_10_52117-LOCATION_PLAN_-_A4-434518

John Baylay then wrote again on 9/8/2010 requesting more information and a number of technical questions, probably in full knowledge of the absolute bullshit for which this company were known for requesting more time, breaching the original conditions, breaching agreed revised conditions and then coming up with another bullshit excuse for failing in that before finally abandoning the site completely.  He asked them to respond within 14 days, and yet that did not happen.

DC_10_52117-FURTHER_INFORMATION_REQUIRED-616602

The EA response was a typical wash their hands of this situation in that they state that the drainage officer at the council should comment on the flooding issues of muddy water run off that were resulting from the elevated unapproved levels at the site.

DC_10_52117-ENVIRONMENT_AGENCY_CONSULTATION-616633

On September 15th 2010 Baylay took this application to committee, without having anything of substance from the applicants. At this stage, the application should have been rejected, especially given that he was in full knowledge of the conditions breach and that this had been happening for some time. This application was very much on his watch, as the ones at Duport’s Tip and Coneygree had also been on his watch and Sandwell Council had failed to sufficiently monitor for, with the applicants taking the piss with every one.

DC_10_52117-COMMITTEE_REPORT___SUPPORTING_DOCUMENTS-445648 (2)

Baylay states that the original approved levels had been exceeded by eight metres! I mean this is the height of a three story house for fucks sake, what the hell were the planning authority monitoring? The amount of sand defies belief in that this was NOT a waste material that was being offloaded on the cheap in bulk for extra income.

It is stated that the owner of the adjacent Percy Business Park had objected to the proposals given that he had been suffering loss due to the Mintworth operations flooding the area and had been raising this for some time. This therefore confirms, that just like the residents of two estates Baylay et al from SMBC could not have given a fuck about those concerns and instead batted for the highly dubious infiller. He doubted that the levels would be removed, and that the application timescale would be adhered to- a wise man given the knowledge of the previous Baylay/SMBC approved applications at other sites.

Despite this, the application appears to have been deferred for more information.

On 13/10/10, some two months after Baylay had requested a two-week response BEA replied to the questions asked.

DC_10_52117-RESPONSE_TO_REQUEST_FOR_INFORMATION-617013

It is interesting to note that Sladen Associates were not providing any monitoring results for this for question three, but rather John Hurst of Mintworth. I would question if the results from the client were sufficiently independently valid?  🙄 This file is askew and sideways and upside down, rather apt under the circumstances as to what had been occurring at the site.  😀

DC_10_52117-MONITORING_RESULTS-616598

I am not sure what John Baylay made of this, or how it could even be sufficiently verifiably confirmed as accurate.

It is further astonishing that this application effectively disappeared off the planning radar

until January 2012! WHY WAS IT ALLOWED TO LAY IDLE IN FULL KNOWLEDGE OF BREACH OF PLANNING CONDITIONS SEEKING RETROSPECTIVE PERMISSION, ALLOWED TO CONTINUE RETROSPECTIVELY WITHOUT VALID PERMISSION BEING GRANTED FOR SUCH OR ACTION TAKEN BY SANDWELL PLANNING AUTHORITY? THIS WAS PERMISSION GRANTED BY DEFAULT, WITHOUT ANY COUNCILLOR VOTING FOR IT.  

It is also noteworthy that in the period concerned, I noted Mintworth agents tatting for metal at the abandoned Duport’s tip site, also raising issues with this same planning officer, only for him to bat them away without him actually visiting the site top see what was going in there himself. Quite honestly, I always found his many decisions in relation to this companies planning applications very strange indeed. 

 

The next thing we see on file is from December 2011 and the reappearance of Sladen Associates who write to John Hurst of Mintworth.

DC_10_52117-LETTER_RE_PRE_LOADING_OPERATION-616597

This letter is quite ludicrous and again I would state cannot be verified independently by SMBC. It also asks for yet another year- oh what a surprise!

This endless and apparently “blank cheque Baylay” open application finally went to committee on 25/1/2012. 

DC_10_52117-COMMITTEE_REPORT___SUPPORTING_DOCUMENTS-555206

The effective permission granted by default- due entirely to the delay of the applicant in providing evidence for the retrospective permission was recommended by Mr B for another 18 months- a year for settlement, and 6 months to remove materials.

Of course, the nodding dogs of the planning committee allowed it without question.

 

Whether the material settled and at what point it was removed is now lost to time, but these pictures from 2017 show that a few years after, the site became another abandoned and unrealised “development site”- thus not immediately being suitable for the purpose for which this planning officer recommended approval.

If only some public money could be obtained to finally “settle” this longstanding toxic wreck of a site strangely owned by a tax haven registered company in Jersey- ah that forms the next part of this story……

 

 

OPINION

Politicians it seems have no real imagination except “reinventing” old schemes that they think the public have forgotten.  Their “growth” agenda using public cash strangely seems tied to private business.

One of the worst examples of this is Andy Street- a mayor so pointless that many would not even recognise him in the West Midlands; a Jim Henson creation ferret but without the charisma, and with a fetish for public transport creation schemes that never materialise. And yet his power of influence allows him the ear of Government to literally dictate which areas can be built upon and which can be saved from development- the clue is the Labour voting areas are the ones that are to be built on- particularly as that party cannot manage money and go cap in hand for Government cash whenever they can by pleading “poverty”. He picks and chooses which areas are “brownfield” and which are greenspace, for example contrast Brandhall Golf course with the Lion Farm Fields- which he has not really outpoured his opposition to given that Conservative party donor Jeremy Knight Adams has been in long discussions with Sandwell council about destroying them.

We should therefore be very weary of any out tray “new” announcements that this man and his office make, and spirit level stimulus injections of “Government” cash given the track record of his championed disasters like the Smethwick hospital, H$2 and the metro line which spiral in costs and delays in perpetuity, and all vocally championed from the Wealdstone Raider’s microphone like a fishy queef.

Labour and Conservatives offer nothing to this area via Government except the same poison chalice. They are a spent and busted flush with no ideas except recycling old ones- much like trains, they come along every ten years with the same idea, and all at once like busses.  The area does not need a “fairy Godfather” or Wizard of Odd character who keeps appearing for photo opportunities at every turn down the line, it doesn’t need a “champion” or “celebrity” endorsement either.

Over the last several years, Dudley Council has wasted the time of all the other local authorities, as well as the public with at first “The Black Country Core Strategy” and then “The Black Country Plan”. Their officers put together this crock of shite, deliberately making it incomprehensible and impossible to read, except if you are well versed in such documents, or retired. Of course, this fits the profile of the greenbelters from Tentenhall and areas bordering South Staffordshire who were up in arms about their view being spoilt by more housing. The black country it appears has to be built on to take the “invasion” scum from the south, dumped upon it by Whitehall mandarins. Then Dudley decided to pull the plug and withdraw from their own constructed plan- was this always the intention- I do think it very much was.

The cost to the taxpayer from these public sector political crooks is eyewatering. 

For those who remember The Black Country Development Corporation of the late 80’s and 90’s, the West Midlands Combined Authority is just the reinvention. It sets targets and gives opportunity to construction investors with firms registered in tax havens who shit on the area with their “growth” schemes and land banking.  Some of these have dual companies registered in the UK and in Jersey for example to avoid tax. The tax man should be paying close attention to grants given out to the UK arm, and if this is being siphoned off abroad to the clone. Leave a site derelict and mothballed for years and then wait till a taxpayer funded scheme comes along to remediate land that had been abandoned many years before with no intention of ever “cleaning up” for an end purpose.

Their officers meet in secret to destroy green space and shit on the lives of local people with the schemers and then facilitate deals and planning applications and “masterplans” behind their backs which are almost impossible to stop through the bent constructed planning process, stacked in their favour by the political class. They also go on taxpayer expense holidays to the South of France once a year.

Now that DMBC have screwed the other councils over, it now appears that a new name has been given to the worst of the Black Country Plan in the form of “investment zones”. In Sandwell this appears to be the old  Dudley Port Supplementary Planning Document from 2017.  SMBC as well as Street appear intent on building houses next to the failed Metro line to Brierley Hill and surrounding and condemning those who live in this area to even more squalor and overcrowding to save the tory voters fucking “greenbelt”- private agricultural land with no purpose except being land banked by them.

The blurb reads

“Sandwell Investment Zone: A compelling collection of brownfield sites around the route of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension (many within 15 mins walk from the extension), including schemes at Wednesbury and Tipton, creating new housing and industrial space, and regenerating existing industrial premises”

Michael Gove, it seems has recently poured a bit of cold water over the eager beavers, and perhaps a rebuke to Street who backed the absolute total loser and waste of fucking space, Liz Truss in the recent PM shambles. He states that investment zones should not go ahead if they damage the environment- WELL MR GOVE, THIS SCHEME WILL CERTAINLY DO THAT! 

I have also previously outlined this so called “Dudley port Supplementary planning document” in 2017. Around 400 local residents and users of Sheepwash Nature Reserve signed a petition which was handed in to Sandwell Council at the time, but they stated that it would be more appropriate to be considered at the time when the allocations came up for review- which was of course The Black Country Plan.

I have now forwarded this petition demonstrating “the strength of opposition from the local community” to local MP for West Bromwich West Shaun Bailey- and he can do with it what he likes- either backing the residents, or his colleagues “investment zones” like Andy Street.  Already, he is aware of just how much of his constituency is developed, how much of the green space is devalued as “brownfield“, and hopefully he is too savvy to believe the spin about “urban villages” and “garden cities” which will develop and destroy even more of the little we have left. 

 

 The “misery” of the ten-year tipping operation that supposedly was to take two has been documented HERE.  We cannot and should not accept a return to this absolute fucking planning farce again, the section 73 conman show begging for more time so more shit could be tipped, and the planning appeals decided by some c£nt in Bristol. 

 

#STOPTHEGARDENCITY

#INVEST IN GREEN SPACE WITH NO STRINGS

 

Another instance of parental neglect combined with the dangers of phosphorus was reported in The Loughborough Echo of 22nd August 1913. 

It is revealed that two brothers, one aged ten and the other twelve had been playing with a crude but still viable firearm. Their engineer father obviously had more to do with this contraption than is mentioned in the article, as it involved what appears to be his workshop where the tragedy took place.

The phosphorus from a box of matches, I would assume red in this case, was used as the “gunpowder” with a lead bullet put into the barrel. The contraption was secured in a vice with one brother standing in the line of fire in the shed.  Dick committed fratricide by inadvertently firing the gun by the action of friction with the phosphorus.

Playing with matches was a painful lesson for poor George who was shot through the heart with the bullet.

 

In the last post, I looked at the former website of this then international company. One of the astounding things on this 1998 ish piece was its claimed 150 year “brief history”, up to that point, “brief” being the operative word indeed!

Of course, they would not get the chance to update this, as they went caput in 2000, being swallowed up by the Rhodia onion eaters.

None of their history of course involved their PR disasters, accidents and fatalities on their sites, and their environmental record of shame, far in contrast to the bullshit lies on their website about corporate responsibility and environmental protection. The Albright and Wilson toxic archive links on this website tell the real story of AW, throughout their years of destruction and vile pollution. Of course, there is no mention of places like Rattlechain Lagoon- and the story of this site is told chronologically at this page.

Here is a summary with relevant links to Albright and Wilson’s real 150 years of history, the part that they conveniently left out, and the only history worth knowing. It’s been an interesting jigsaw puzzle reviewing this list of the macabre and downright shocking, and who knows what may yet come to light…..

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GRIME

1851 Albright and Wilson partnership founded.

1899 AW worker Eli Guest Killed and several other workers badly injured following explosion of steam from boiler. 

1902 Several men badly burnt following an “alarming” gas explosion at the works. 

1939 Munitions worker James Pinel charged and found guilty of sabotaging works equipment by attempted arson attack. 

1940/50’s The legendary “Oldbury smell” gave rise to a slew of complaints concerning pollution and ill health in the Oldbury area and further afield.

1948 Director Thomas Ashton commits suicide at the site, in relation to his work. 

1952 Phosphorus blaze in Trinity Street factory. 

1953 Another fire at Trinity Street destroys an office and single story block roof. 

1955 Research chemist Phillip Carter commits suicide, also blamed on his work at Oldbury. 

1955 Maintenance fitter George Buck dies of fatal injuries after being showered with white phosphorus at the AW Portishead factory, just two years after it had opened. 

1959 Phosphorus pentasulphide fire at the site requires firemen with breathing apparatus to tackle it. 

1960 Phosphorus fire explosion at the plant requires a three hour battle from firefighters to extinguish it. 

1963 Toluene gas explosion at Trinity Street injures 4 firemen. 

1967 Worker Thomas Gough dies in another explosion at the oil additives plant in Trinity Street. 

1968/69 Disastrous Placentia Bay fish deaths at AW’s flagship new Long Harbour plant killed millions of fish and destroyed the ecosystem with phossy water pollution- from phosphorus production. Albright and Wilson neared bankruptcy with the closing of this plant.

Dec 1972 Worker receives “severe burns to the face, neck and buttocks” following exposure to phosphorus substance. 

Jan 1974 27 workers overcome by chlorine gas fumes at Trinity Street. 

1976 white phosphorus fire en route to rattlechain lagoon when waste catches fire. 

1982 Chemical process employee at Trinity Street loses leg and has other foot mangled due to AW negligence. He would only receive compensation from them 11 years later through the courts. 

February 1986 A blaze at the works missed by works firemen who were watching a fire training video!

June 1986 Employee burned by phosphorus at Trinity Street, the first of two fires in six hours at the site. 

July 1986 Derailment of white phosphorus train in Ohio US leads to massive casualties due to toxic release of gases and fire. 

June 1988 Phosphine gas fire following explosion at Trinity Street. 

July 1989 Albright and Wilson IS FINED ….FOR ALLOWING RADIOACTIVE DUST TO BLOW AROUND A DOCKSIDE SITE at Portishead. This in contrast to lies published in Albright World about the operation.

July/September 1989 Two fires involving the chemical phosphorus sesquisulphide pour more spotlight over safety at this factory. 

October 1989 White phosphorus fire at Rattlechain lagoon sparks interest in the site from concerned residents and unsuspecting councillors. 

February 1990 Workers at Trinity Street flee orange toxic acid cloud released. 

February/March 1990 Foul gas given off at Trinity Street blamed on “faulty equipment”

August 1990. Massive phosphorus drum fire at Portishead site

October 1990 Greenpeace take Albright and Wilson to court in a private prosecution winning case under the 1989 Water Act for pollution from their Whitehaven works. 

December 1990 5o tonnes of white phosphorus reported to have caught fire sending plumes of toxic gas across Langley. 

June 1991. Explosion at AW’s Charleston plant producing phosphorus chemicals in the US killed 9 men and injured many more. 

Jan 1992 A train carrying 50 tonnes of white phosphorus caught fire on delivery to the Trinity Street factory, emitting toxic gas. 

October 1996. A large fire at AW’s Avonmouth plant after ludicrous health and safety mix up of containers.

‘Albright and Wilson fined £60,000 after explosion at chemical plant’, Safety Management, July/August 1999, p8, British Safety Council.

1999 onwards –Dead birds appear at Rattlechain lagoon and are first documented to be dying on this “lake of death” after being poisoned by white phosphorus. 

 

It’s just a pump to the left……

I’ve recently come across some pages on the excellent Internet archive page concerning the former Albright and Wilson, at the end of their demise from around 1998. This is interesting as it relates to the same time period where I first noticed dead birds suspiciously turning up dead on their secretive waste dump in Tividale- not something that ever made it onto their PR bullshit web of deceit.

At this point in time, they were operating under the catch line “Chemicals for everyday living”.  😐 

At this point in time, websites like this were fairly basic and organised into sections shown below, which we will look at in turn. The first “corporate info” is typical of these chemical liars.

 

“Albright & Wilson attaches the highest priority to the protection of the health and safety of its employees, customers, neighbours and others who may come in contact with, or be affected by, its operations or products. It recognises equally its duty to protect the environment both in the vicinity of its operations and elsewhere by responsible management of waste materials.”

Well, all I can say to that is that this website contains a dossier of evidence to the contrary, which I will be setting out in the next post. Its activities negatively affected peoples’ lives for decades with the smells, accidents, fires and explosions, whilst also burning its workforce and gassing them with toxic chemicals and rotting their jaws. Oh, and don’t forget the prosecutions….

Their manual was not worth shit.

We know their boasts about the environment are fake, given that around all of their sites there were major accidents and spillages- Oldbury, Portishead, Whitehaven, Avonmouth….

At this point in time they were still a multinational company with the following structure

…and then goose steps to the right

By now of course, there were no more Albright and Wilson’s left with the demise of Kaiser Bill in 1980.

 

Even more toe-curling is their own view of their history up to this point, “Brief” indeed, and missing many public relations disasters. There would not be many more years left for them however 😆

 

but it’s the phosphorus sludge, that really drives you insane….

Of course, it is the chemicals themselves that are of most interest, and we get a full breakdown of the terrorists at work. The production of these toxic substances was split into three main sections, “Speciality chemicals”, “phosphate and phosphate derivatives”, and “surfactants”.

 

Oldbury was an example of a speciality chemicals site.

I won’t go through the entire list, but here are the chemicals related to phosphorus specialities and derivatives. These include the standard phosphorus trichloride and phosphorus oxychloride. To think that the shite from these processes went into rattlechain lagoon is of course omitted from the boasts of this website. Of course, we know that the cancer causing “round- up” of Monsanto’s glyphosate mixture were also made possible under the agricultural intermediates of this subgroup.

Of course, they made a fortune out of producing this toxic crap.

Incredibly, seven years earlier 9 men had been killed in an explosion at one of their Amercian sites in Charleston.  There is no mention of this on this website at this time, no regret, no memorial, and not a fuck given…..

There is however an opportunity to comment, where no doubt you would be “assured” that there was a “very unlikely event” of a calamity befalling anyone in the surrounding area of one of their death-trap establishments.

 

Here’s one that would probably have not gone down too well at Trinity Street Towers, but the truth though…

……LET’S DO THE GRIME WARP AGAIN! 

 

The Albright and Wilson families were truly revolting characters. I have looked at Arthur Albright and two of his Grandchildren and their demise, but another, William Albright, the son of John, is a special case in terms of his longevity and involvement in destroying the local area with the factory in Langley.

I have written a biography of this war dodging chump already, and this should be read in conjunction with this post. The following however deals with the final curtain of his dealings with the Trinity Street phosphorus factory, at which at one time he ponced around as part of the Home Guard. This man of great privilege was born into the Quaker family empire phosphorus dynasty and would never have done anything else with his life if not for that.

“Albright World”- the company newspaper in his name which brainwashed their hapless umpa lumpa workforce with fake scientific claims and false statements about ill health caused by the chemicals that they were handling and making, recorded his official “retirement”- in reality he did nothing for work for his entire fucking life. This March 1980 edition lamented

“For the first time in the company’s history, there is no Albright on the A+W board. ”  🙁 

A phosphorus production unit

His links to Portishead are mentioned in the article, which bizarrely do him no favours at all given the fairly disastrous goings on here regards the later decommissioning of a plant that was not wanted by the local community at the time.

“Ernest recalled Bill’s ability to cut through red tape, and how he managed – through a friend- to obtain scarce materials without which the Portishead plant could not have been built.”

I have already uncovered that he was involved in an act of fraud during the war in attempting to use camouflage materials made by an AW sub company instead of that recommended by the War department at the time in covering the MOS factory at Trinity Street. The material was deemed substandard, and yet he argued the toss without declaring the vested financial interest from which AW would charge the Ministry of Supply. The robbing conning bastard him.

As for the favour granted by “a friend”, was this a “friend” of the weirdo cult society variety, or a funny handshake trouser leg roller, of which he almost certainly was?

It is stated that he was presented with a garden gate as well as a scroll at the special dinner. They appeared to love wining and dining in this way.

There are some recollections and embellishments about the man, and his interests in killing animals for fun.

Perhaps Billy plonker and Albright and Wilson missed a trick in promoting themselves and their “everyday chemicals” in giving local children the chance of a factory tour competition with a pack of Calgon. What a macabre spectacle it could have been, as they witnessed how to get gassed with chlorine, burnt by phosphorus, and poisoned with phossy jaw breakers.

There is little doubt that the hard-pressed folk of Langley were “holding their breath” and dreaming of “paradise” when living next to his stinking factory of smells and toxic chemicals for all of Bill Albright’s days there.

This latest find from the newspaper archive summarises other stories from The Birmingham Daily Post about the notorious “Oldbury Smell” of Albright and Wilson, and also throws in some more that I was not aware of previously. There is a good deal of stuff to break down in this article and what we now know about the lies of Albright and Wilson and the political figures protecting their filthy polluting business.

The article appeared in the 4th September 1953 edition where it states that neighbouring then borough Smethwick was up in arms about the waft of cat piss drifting over their town and had started a petition.

 

We get admission from an unnamed tosser of the company that the smell might continue, and even brazenly states.

“We hope it will not occur frequently…….we know it is horrible”. 

It references “new plant” that had been installed to allegedly stop it, which I looked at in this article.

We then enter the chronological timeline set out meticulously in the article.

Complaints were made in 1949, and I looked at the origins story HERE.

The slimy ass kissing scumbag, S. Melsom defended these polluting liars frequently, which I looked at HERE. 

This was in contrast to medical experts like Dr Barrada, who stated that gases produced in the reaction were likely to have damaging effects on human health.

As the 1950’s dawned, the Trinity Street pussy pongers claimed that the smell was on the way out. Despite this lie, evidence reached the Post that it had travelled to Handsworth, and it obviously now “a Brum Ting”.

In 1950, Melsom again defended his paymasters by using bureaucracy as an excuse to do nothing.

Dr Barrada again spoke out in 1952, when it obvious that the smell and promises that it would be dealt with came to nothing. Clearly, the borough of Smethwick was starting to put pressure on the cocksuckers from Oldbury protecting their backyard filthy business.

Unfortunately, they would be sucked into the short-lived borough of Warley themselves, thus neutralising the outpouring of disgust at their neighbours’ failures.

The smell would of course persist and become enshrined in local folklore.

The demise of The West Midlands County Council in 1986 saw local authorities once again taking on the responsibility of waste management and matters involving regulation. In anticipation of this April Fools day handover, a piece in the 21st  March Coventry Evening Telegraph claimed that the new Hazardous Waste Unit as it would be called would regulate the activities. Quoted is none other than Thelma Hillman, who is now “assistant waste disposal officer for pollution control in The West Midlands”.  😆

You can see that from this, it was just business as usual, or polluting business as usual to be more apt. The WMCC had totally failed to stop flytipping waste crime of toxic waste, and had failed to ensure that licensing for tipping said hazardous waste was “tightly controlled” at all- as we can see from the useless fucking licences that they passed. Hillman and co during these dark years, were very much the problem and not the solution, and the name change brought no change at all, as we shall see.

 

A couple of years later, after the Walsall Council based cretins had assumed , or kept their roles, a piece from the Sunday Mercury 24th January 1988 posed the provocative question, “Why must we be turned into the world’s poison dustbin?”

The short answer to this is that The Conservative Government at the time, the ministers and the civil service were all bent and corrupt fucking stains who kept the system for polluting business growth. The article talks of that word “timebomb” in relation to toxic waste producing methane gas being evolved from landfill sites, but poorly links this to waste being imported from other countries.

We of course had the same article in 1971 bemoaning exactly the same thing.

Factually, the Mercury article is utter bollocks in this regard, given the waste that Britain and the rest of the developed world  itself exported to third world countries for young children to die from and cause them cancer and other health maladies. It is obviously intended to enflame tensions that existed around this time in that the West Midlands was receiving a disproportionate amount of this foreign crap, particularly with crook firms like Leigh Environmental and co handling it in the HWU back yard. “Our safety” the piece claims, is all down to the Walsall based office wonders .  😮

 

We get a full PR treatment of this useless vessel. This anti foreign bullshit belies the fact that British firms like Albright and Wilson were poisoning their communities for decades and dumping fucking toxic waste in their communities unregulated, and when “regulated” by the likes of the HWU was a regulation not fit for purpose. Somehow, this red herring makes it more saleable to voters of a certain persuasion perhaps that it is a foreign problem, when the complete opposite is the case. Dirty Britain made it, dirty Britain dumped it. 

It states that 40 people are employed in this team, with Hillman playing a prominent role.

She makes some very prophetic comments, the most shocking being

“I worry about the future and the problems that we are storing up… we have good records of what has been put where, but you never know what will happen in 30 or 40 years. Records can get lost”. 

Well, dear Thelma, all I can say to that is your records at the WMCC were fucking shite. You personally were unable to point out where 250,000 gallons of toxic waste had been tipped on a new housing estate, so did not know “what had been put where”, let alone the records of waste dumping before licensing at places such as Rattlechain lagoon which they did not know anything about at all! 

I’m not sure how a civil servant came to talk to the press in this way, or whether it was even apt to do so, but it was not the first time she had done this, as a 1981 New Scientist article titled “Toxic waste- the political connections” again quotes her bemoaning the lack of political will and how lack of staff will lead to fly-tipping waste disposal “cowboys” operating. This was during the time of the WMCC and there had now just been a change in political leadership of that council from Labour to Conservative. One might question the political motives of an officer making comments of this type. 😕 The Lords Select Committee obviously failed to take anything on board or make any meaningful contribution to the debate. 

As for the 30-40 years she speaks of, we know of course that thanks to her team who morphed and got jobs in the Environment Agency, the records were quite deliberately obfuscated, the chemicals hidden from members of the public into meaningless phrases,  probably for the same bent political bastards in Government who now pursue “brownfield first” building on the said toxic time bomb sites for their crook developer party political donors!

I wonder how many of those working for this team at this time went into environmental consultancy for the bent land banking house building sector?

The final joke is that the unit is considered ” a centre of excellence” in the UK, but that “standards were slipping”. I honestly cannot believe how out of touch this woman was with reality at this time, but perhaps at least she did not jump ship like at least two of her  treacherous colleagues, who obviously knew that there was more money to be made in the private sector of helping firms avoiding being caught than catching the criminals at work.

The only thing that she is right about is the lack of political will to change the situation, though this was apparent, and remains apparent with all Governments since this article was written. Perhaps the HWU speaking out about foreign waste thought that there were votes to be made in talking up imported foreign waste instead of that made locally? This perhaps shows how apathetic people are, but only because they were not told of the real risks of the chemicals- by those who had worked at the West Midlands County Council to start with.

They added the mercury tilt switches by bloody useless licences, and set double wires by the pathetically worded conditions which created loopholes in themselves. The fuses were set by them, and they should own that instead of talking shite.

Just a few months later, the same title followed up with a piece on 12th March 1989.

A Government Select committee, (yet another one just 8 years after the Lords),  had looked into waste disposal issues, and concluded that the system was crap. The trouble with scrutiny committees of MP’s such as this is that that put forth some holier than thou points urging urgency, yet are safe in the knowledge that nothing will change. It is their role to play the alarmist, because it generates them headlines, and only continues the system of political failure when nothing happens. We were now 17 years after The Deposit of Poisonous Wastes Act, and 15 years after The Control of Pollution Act, so all failures of these laws were on Parliament themselves, and no one else. A Conservative talks of “near misses” yet is blind to places such as Rattlechain lagoon which were not near misses, they had been allowed to happen, as had all the other SL licences passed by the WMCC.

The article mentions Hillman and the MP’s who share her concerns, but also astutely states;

“But where are the politicians and the environmentalist lobby when it comes to the unglamorous question of toxic waste buried under the feet of ordinary people here in the West Midlands? “

Quite right, because today in 2022 they are all veering us away with the bollocks of “climate change” ,planned  policies of globalist change and coercion, taking us away from local issues and happy to build houses on top of these toxic waste tips. I know history will record how such environmental groups , (probably political plant confederates), and politicians were all really just pissing in the same pot.

In the report, Rossi talks a good fight, but is blind to what he is actually stating.

“All old landfill sites are suspect. Nobody knows what chemistry is taking place. No testing is done, no monitoring. “

Well, is that not what the licensing system was supposed to do when introduced by Parliament and upheld by the likes of Thelma Hillman? FFS!

The Mercury also states that the report does not mention any single tip or location- thus its authors were part of the problem, blowing hot air and protecting the system they were claiming to condemn. This is why politicians of the like of Hugh Rossi are not to be trusted when coming out with hot air headlines such as this. They are nothing but cowards, and are totally insincere in changing things. Theirs is a world where they cosy up to CEO’s of scum like Leigh Environmental and Albright and Wilson, or even become their advisers such as at least two fuckwit MP’s were doing at this time. They then claim credit for reductions in what they are doing instead of outright bans. No one of course can possibly measure this horseshit or prove it is happening.

It does mention the unfolding Leigh Environmental protests in Walsall and the distrust of people in the operation being regulated properly.

Some 33 years later, nothing has changed at all, and the timebomb fuse is still ticking. Unfortunately, it will have exploded in some people who have had their homes built on toxic tips in the form of cancers which they will have to prove came from the crap that Hillman and co failed to stop happening all those years ago. Failures like Rossi have also snuffed it and are now, to use an apt paraphrased term for him “sleeping with the two headed fishes”, and that at least it is no loss at all. The records of toxic waste tipped and buried have been deleted for this very purpose, and this is the real legacy of The West Midlands County Council- complicit with industrialists in harming people and the Environment for purely economic gain. #SCUM. 

 

This former quango is without doubt one of the worst examples of governance in modern history, with the role of waste disposal and pollution prevention being the rotting corpse in a grave that kept on leaking. For much of its existence it was steered by a bloke called  Ken Harvey, who I believe was nothing more than a Birmingham bins bloke foreman who suddenly found himself elevated to the souped-up role of “county waste disposal officer”, a role for which he was an absolute fucking failure and disaster, and architect of things that are still left over today from 40+ years ago. Of course the bunch of greasing turds in charge as c”o”unty councillors at this time are also culpable for passing waste disposal licences such as SL31 and their weak wording which allowed scum like Albright and Wilson to carry on polluting with little implications on them.

Their doomwatch sites, I have listed from these dark days of Harvey’s failure to control pollution , as well as showing how incompetent his officers were in that they could not even identify a location where 250,000 gallons of sulphuric acid had been dumped, after those who had done the crime had been prosecuted!

As well as the failure of licensing, it is clear that Harvey’s idiots were not even competent chemists or scientists, which would have come in quite handy in tackling and challenging deceitful liars like AW about their waste disposal activities.

Harvey and co passed a licence which allowed AW to dispose of one of the most toxic substances handled in the region, (white phosphorus),  into an urban watery lagoon, on the basis that it would be “safe” to let it oxidise in “small quantities”– as we know, hundreds of tonnes of it actually FFS!

Not only was the plant in which this cargo came from not competent in stopping pollution over decades harming people and the environment, but its dump was already known as a notorious hell in the middle of Dudley Port that was “a peril to children”.

When road tanker operation took over from canal barge, it was clear that the operation was still not safe, when material deposited at rattlechain was allowed to burn out. I looked at how a tanker carrying waste to rattlechain, including drums of toxic material had caught fire on route there from Trinity Street. 

This was from The May 16th 1976 edition of the Sandwell Evening Mail and therefore before the SL31 licence had been passed in 1978. You would have hoped that incidents such as this would have informed those passing the licence, or refusing to allow it to continue- well at least any reasonable person would.  🙄 

“An official enquiry has been launched into the incident in which highly combustible phosphorus waste caught fire in Oldbury while being transported by open lorry to a tip.

A full scale police and fire brigade alert was started when a 40 gallon drum containing the waste burst into flames. It was being driven through Oldbury to a Tividale tip from the Langley works of chemical manufacturers Albright and Wilson Ltd.

Mr Ken Harvey the county council’s waste disposal officer said “I would not consider this a satisfactory method of transporting such materials.

I am aware of the Albright and Wilson waste tipping operations but I am not aware that waste is being handled in this manner.

We intend to pursue this matter through discussions with the company because after this incident one must accept that present transportation arrangements are not entirely satisfactory.”

I discussed the paradox as to how Harvey could claim that the practice of transporting this waste was “not satisfactory” , yet allowing it to continue under his watch under a licence bearing his own name just months later.

What I have recently found through another article, is that Harvey’s claims and “enquiry” were absolutely nothing of the sort, and that any discussion with AW must have involved either brown envelopes of cash to look the other way , a freemason handshake, or ignoring any safety implications of continuing this operation, as it clearly did continue.

The 11th June 1976 Birmingham Mail is a shocking indictment of Harvey’s incompetence in his job, and that of the entire regulator. In less than one month, this white wash lie concluded that the firm were not to blame for the incident, of course clearing Harvey’s own useless organisation of any wrong doing themselves, in that they were quite happy for AW to have been doing this to start with.

What is more bizarre is that it recommended that the lorries should no longer be single crewed, rather than the highly flammable cargo being unsuitable to be carried through residential streets! I mean what the actual fuck are they talking about here?

Thirteen drums of p4 containing waste had left the site heading for rattlechain, when one caught fire- thus all them would have eventually.

“A spokesman said that Albright and Wilson were transporting this cargo with authority”. 

Yes of course, ultimately the ass clown Ken Harvey’s authority. 

Even more incredible is that the berk at WMCC, probably this lazy thick hopper tipper twat himself, claims that they did not know how the incident started. FFS! P4 catches fire when exposed to air, it really is that simple! 

There is also the absolute lie from the driver and AW that there was “a burst tyre”. This for me is typical of this company and their red herring bullshit which attempts to switch blame onto anything but the chemicals they fail to handle safely. I mean if a tyre had “burst”, how would the driver have been able to tour the area looking for somewhere to park when knowing that one of the drums was on fire behind him? He would have lost control of the vehicle and probably crashed. Did that happen; I think not? I also wonder as to whether the driver was pressured into making this fake claim to keep his job, nothing would surprise me at all with the management of this shameful operator.

Another provable lie is that AW steered clear of residential areas. THEY DID NOT! They were still using the same route described in the SEM article in the 2000’s !

The map below from the period shows both the former toxic trail by canal barge compared to the toxic trail by road. There may have been some variations of this route from Trinity Street via Shidas lane/Lower City Road for example, but I stalked these bastards along the route at the time in the 2000’s between loads, so I know what I am talking about.

I am not sure how two men could have done anything differently than one, and it is clear that one man in a tanker continued to dump the waste all those years later when I first came across the scene in the 1990’s. WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT ANY ONE MAN COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB THAN KEN HARVEY DID, AND THAT THE OLD BOYS NETWORK OF MILITARY PAST DEEDS/CIVIL SERVICE BACK SCRATCHING FROM AW CONTINUED TO GIVE THEM SPECIAL PASSES TO DO WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANTED TO WITH AN APPARENT DIPLOMATIC INDUSTRIAL IMMUNITY. 

WMCC could not detect a white phosphorus fire if it came up and lit them up the arse.

 

 

I have looked previously at the location app called what3words in connection to rattlechain lagoon.  

Some of the 3 square metre locations within the site offer some pretty hilarious and relevant 3 word unique combinations. I think my favourite is the one below.

 

But something just popped in there like A LIGHT BULB the other day in my head as it often does from nowhere. I wonder if there is a place in all of the world that consists of everyone’s favourite most controversial waste disposal site that in itself consists of three words- RATTLE CHAIN LAGOON? Surely there would not be such a place that could have been so unlucky to have been assigned such a hellish namesake consisting of three square metres? WELL THERE IS! 

The location appears to be located near to a lagoon or lake with similar shape to our rattlechain!

But where in the world is this place, which also looks like it is in the middle of nowhere? The answer when I went to Google maps takes an even more bizarre twist, and I am starting to wonder if I am in either a bad lucid dream or someone is PULLING.MY.PLONKER.

 

Alaska!

Of course, rattechain lagoon has a connection with this state in the US given the white phosphorus military firing range at Ford Richardson alongside The Eagle River Flats where birds died as a result of white phosphorus poisoning, and the studies of which helped to confirm the link that birds on Rhodia’s LAKE.OF.DEATH were also dying after ingesting the BANNED.RAT.POISON. 

The scientists who were involved in these studies helped us enormously in the endeavour to unpick the mistruths that the Oldbury polluters were peddling, and even mentioned an article about the site in a remediation paper as to options for dealing with another contaminated P4 lagoon.

The area in Alaska of the other rattle chain lagoon is located South West of Anchorage and The Eagle River within the area known as The Lake and Peninsula Borough, or sometimes appears to be called “The Lake and Peninsula school district.” 

This is a very rural area with very few inhabitants and plenty of Grizzly Adams style critters, with the nearest populated area called Pilot Point.  

Isn’t it a small world! What I am sure about however is that whatever 3 square metre rocky outcrop RATTLE.CHAIN.LAGOON Alaska falls within, it would be a much safer place for man and beast that the white phosphorus CONTAMINATED.SHIT.HOLE  namesake in Oldbury England!