Stockport Council News

In the early 1980s on a sister Jackson’s Brickyards site opened in
1922, like the Harcourt Street site, with the same layout and planning and
tipping history, they did more contamination investigations on a regular grid
pattern for just warehouses than they did in 2006 for this 550 pupil primary
school. The 1982 warehouses were not going directly over the old tip. This
school is. Why would the safety standards be better 30 years ago than
now?

In a memo written by Stockport Council’s Environmental Health
Officer referring to the former Jackson’s Brickyard sister site at Adswood he
states:- “If a venting point was driven though an area of asbestos there would
be the potential for asbestos fibres to be released on to the development. No
lower threshold exists for certain types of asbestos, hence a serious health
risk would occur if even one fibre of asbestos were to be released during the
venting of the gas”.

The warehousing at the Bredbury former Jackson’s Brickyards, where
they did more investigations 30 years ago than they did for this school in 2006,
is not even directly over the old tipped waste – the new school is directly over
the old tip.

Stockport Council is insisting that all questions regarding this
issue are vexatious, yet they tried to do no contamination investigations,
knowing full well, as Councillor Mark Weldon admitted in the Manchester
Evening News, that the site was likely to be contaminated with brown asbestos.
Councillor Weldon even had a photo-opportunity recently with young children
sitting on the contaminated land whilst he dug the first sod of earth from the
site with a shovel.

I asked Trevor Hough, site manager, for details of his firm’s insurers, as future claims may be made against his company, BAM Construction Ltd, from people living around the site who may well have been exposed to brown asbestos fibres during construction – and it appears from the clip that correct safety procedures were not followed. He has not responded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0rCPnP5H9o

BS 10175 (7.6.2.5), which the Council and Greater Manchester Geological Unit claim to have complied with in their April 2006 investigations, states that a high density of sampling grid can also be necessary where a high level of confidence is required for the outcome of a risk assessment. Presumably, for 550 primary school pupils and 78 babies directly on top of a still gassing former toxic waste dump a high level of confidence would be required. Apparently not!

At a sister Jackson’s Brickyard site at Adswood were 64 boreholes dug and 176 contamination trial pits. Stockport Council’s experts , GMGU, stated at a public inquiry in 2006 that that amount was not enough, at exactly the same time they were saying four trial pits and 11 boreholes was fine for Harcourt Street sister site where the school was going, These are the same experts who said the Harcourt site was safe originally and then were put in charge of further investigations. I have no confidence in their competence.

This is the supposed removal of lethal brown asbestos fibres, even one of which can cause mesothelioma.

Bored “experts” using a bin bag and a stick and one even takes off his own respirator, so he doesn’t understand the serious nature of his task. A builder walks past unprotected:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0rCPnP5H9o