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Corby Birth Defects due to Toxic Waste
Council Owe a Duty of Care
We
have been closely following the case of
families who claimed that their children
were born with defects caused by exposure to
toxic substances during waste clean-up
operations in Corby, Northamptonshire. Two
of LVAG’s Committee members went along to
hear the Judgement in the High Court in
London last Wednesday. The Judge ruled that
the local council had been ‘extensively
negligent’ and were ‘liable in public
nuisance, negligence and breach of statutory
duty’. LVAG will be making further
representations to our own local Council,
Councillors and MPs regarding our concerns
relating to the unnecessary and dangerous
proposal to ‘clean up’ the Sandford Farm
site in such close proximity to homes, all
in the name of inappropriate, unnecessary,
over-development. The judgement cites the
affected areas is up to 4km away (para.
889), which means that all of Woodley,
Sonning, Charvil, Hurst, Twyford, Winnersh
and most of Earley would be vulnerable to
airborne contamination from the reclamation
process. There is now a clear legal
principle that local authorities hold a duty
of care to protect communities from the
effects of disturbing contaminated land.
The Corby judgement (para 886) says “What
happened was that it [Corby Borough Council]
bit off more than it could chew and did not
really appreciate the enormity,
ramifications and difficulty of what it was
setting out to achieve in terms of removing
and depositing very substantial quantities
of contaminated material.” Does this
sound familiar?
Click here to
read the judgement :
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LVAG Fundraising
Continues
LVAG exceeded their
fundraising target of £10,000 thanks to generous donations from
nearly 300 residents, local Councils and Village Societies.
However, the extended Inquiry involved extra costs and we have a
fund shortfall of approx. £2,000.
The cost breakdown is:
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Legal support
(Barrister and Solicitor) |
£10,500 (incl. VAT) |
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Expert Witnesses
(remediation and planning) |
£3,100 (incl. VAT) |
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Administration
(photocopying/couriers etc) |
£900 |
If you are able to make a
contribution to LVAG please drop off your donation to LVAG c/o
either
8 Comet Way, Woodley, RG5
4NZ or 5 Mohawk Way, RG5 4UE, or via PayPal on the LVAG website.
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Thank You
We would like to take this
opportunity to thank David Parker and Phil Challis for putting in
such a huge amount of time and effort to research, prepare and
present their evidence at the Inquiry at no cost to residents – and
thanks have to go to all of you who have contributed so much to this
campaign in so many ways; printing and distributing Newsletters,
organising and attending fundraising events, simply taking time to
read our Newsletters, sending us letters of support, and to the
council letters of objection, and generally giving up your precious
private time to help out in whatever way you can.
We have made many new
friends and have come to appreciate even more how strong the local
community is and how we can make our combined voice heard. We hope
you will be able to continue to support our fight to protect the
Loddon Valley – together we can make a difference! |
