I noticed from recent correspondance in the Citizen that planning permission appears to have been granted for housing on the old Lune Mills chemical works site at Halton.

For the last few years of the sites use Great Lakes Chemicals made relatively innocuous fire-retardant/fire-fighting chemicals there, and it may be that the planning permission was granted on the assumption that there were no contamination problems on the site.

Great Lakes acquired the site by taking over the previous occupants: Lune Vale Products.

According to the former employee this company had for many years made old-fashioned agrochemical products on this site, mainly based on arsenic/copper/lead/zinc salts.

In a discussion with me some years ago he went on to say that the land around the plant was heavily contaminated with these toxic metals and that any major earthwork there would be bound to release substantial quantities of these metal salts into the River Lune.

Any groundwork prior to building housing there would inevitably release these salts with potentially disastrous consequences to the river life.

You also have to consider the risk to any occupants living in the new housing: these metal salts are extremely dangerous and would be extremely difficult to make inert.

Do you know if the problem of potential land contamination was considered when the permission was approved?

If so, were any precautions required prior to development?

Name and address supplied

Can anyone in the know fill in the blanks for our readers? - Ed