Contaminated land fear for housing plan

A MAJOR housing development is being recommended for approval at Warrington – despite fears that the site could be contaminated.
The land off Marsden Avenue, Latchford 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.
Now Halebank Developments (Warrington) Ltd are seeking permission to build 104 houses on the site, together with car parking, landscaping and public amenity areas.
Local councillor and former Mayor of Warrington Steve Wright (pictured) has lodged an objection over concerns about land contamination.
A report to be considered by the borough council’s development management committee says the tipping of wastes on the site ended around 1980. The site was then capped with a thin covering of soil and allowed to re-vegetate although ground gas is 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 significant 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 comprises 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.
The applicant’s consultants maintain that the gas protection measures proposed should mitigate all risk.
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.
However, if the conditions were not imposed there would be a unresolved concerns about the risks posed to off-site residential properties from potential gas migration.