Contaminated land fears for estate

A CONTROVERSIAL housing development, held up because of fears it could be being built on contaminated land, is to come before planning chiefs at Warrington for a second time next week.
The scheme involves 104 homes on land off Marsden Avenue, Latchford.
Members of the borough council’s development management committee have deferred a decision once because residents, who are worried about the contaminated land issue, claimed they had not been properly consulted.
Councillors thought the proposed development by Halebank Developments (Warrington) Ltd was acceptable.
But they deferred a decision after hearing that some residents were complaining that they had not been consulted.
Concerns were also expressed by local councillor and former Mayor of Warrington Steve Wright and by former councillor Mike Maher about the possibility of the site being contaminated.
The land was used for the disposal of slurried waste from local tanneries between the late 1940s and mid-1960s and later for the tipping of demolition and commercial waste.
The scheme involves 104 houses, car parking, landscaping and public amenity areas.
Tipping of wastes on the site ended around 1980 and the land was then capped with a thin covering of soil and allowed to re-vegetate, although ground gas was known to be generated on the site.
As a result of 18 months of talks with consultants, proposals for remedial measures and protection for houses in nearby Pichael Nook have been significantly changed from those originally proposed.
The source of ground gas is now thought to be on site, rather than from Westy Park, as originally thought.
External gas protection now proposed comprised three “Virtual Curtains” – a network of permeable conduit tubes sunk into the ground and ventilated using “above ground” inlet and exhaust pipes allowing gases to be diluted and to vent free to the atmosphere.
Part of the site – the south west corner – has been declared “undevelopable” due to human health risks from ground gases. But for the rest of the site, internal gas protection measures for new buildings should mitigate risk to site users.
Planning officers say the proposals are in accordance with the council’s housing policy framework and the provision for affordable housing – 70 per cent – is in excess of current requirements.
Landscaping proposals are acceptable and despite the concerns expressed, the council’s environmental and public protection service believe that providing conditions are imposed there will not be a material harmful impact on the living conditions of existing or proposed dwellings.
But if the conditions were not imposed there would be unresolved concerns about the risks posed to off-site residential properties from potential gas migration.