Going underground

Barrie Redington’s campaigning spirit is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made of.

The 62-year-old tenant of Lanarkshire Housing Association is becoming Scotland’s answer to Erin Brockovich in a legal battle that could see him and his neighbours evacuate their homes on a 400-home North Lanarkshire housing estate.

Together with 50 other residents, Mr Redington has sought legal advice in an attempt to prove that the location of their homes is damaging their health.

Two years ago, Mr Redington moved into what he then saw as his ideal home on estate off Watling Street in Motherwell. The dream soured almost immediately. Mr Redington began to suffer from dizziness and soon discovered that his neighbours, many also Lanarkshire Housing Association tenants, were besieged by similar problems. There was often a smell of gas in the properties and tenants complained of ailments including nosebleeds, headaches, mood swings and tiredness. The tenants believe subsidence has caused cracks to appear inside and outside their homes, creating uneven surfaces and presenting an additional hazard.

Mr Redington, originally from London, decided to try to get to the bottom of the problem. He and other worried residents contacted lawyer Elizabeth Craigmyle, of BMK Wilson, funding her assistance through a combination of legal aid and household insurance claims.

Once contacted by Ms Craigmyle, North Lanarkshire Council acknowledged residents’ concerns and has spent nearly £20,000 investigating the matter. In March, it commissioned consultancy WSP Environmental to survey the land at the Watling Street site.

The report did little to reassure Mr Redington and his neighbours. It revealed that the land had a ‘medium to high risk’ of being contaminated with radioactive and toxic metals from a factory that used to be based on the site.

A follow-up above-ground survey, ordered by the council and published in April, concluded that the radiological risk to residents was low but recommended more intrusive tests into the land to check for potential chemical contamination.

Industrial history

Mr Redington has a different view. ‘They should never have built on it,’ he says. He has his own theories about the cause of their problems. ‘They are not going to find anything unless they dig six feet under the ground,’ he added.

He has talked to many local people and pored over various documents and learnt the site was a factory for Metropolitan-Vickers, an electrical engineering company, between the late 1930s and the 1950s. He believes it produced luminescent dials with radioactive paint.

North Lanarkshire Council confirms that Metropolitan-Vickers used the site. But the WSP report it commissioned states: ‘Metropolitan-Vickers historically manufactured radio-luminescent clocks and dials for aircraft to enable crucial instruments to be clearly visible in darkness and under adverse weather conditions. However, no records have been located indicating this manufacturing occurred at the Watling Street site.’

The report goes on to say records show the site was used by Newton Victor in the 1940s — a subsidiary of Metropolitan-Vickers — for the manufacture of medical equipment including X-ray and radiation therapy machines. This could have introduced elements such as the radioactive isotopes Caesium-137 and Cobalt-60 to the site.

Housing development

By the 1990s, the site belonged to Lanarkshire Development Agency, which is now part of Scottish Enterprise, and in 1993, the agency decided to have the land cleaned up so houses could be built on it.

The WSP report states that a post-remedial condition report on the area, undertaken in 1994 by the consultancy Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick [now Scott Wilson Group], found ‘elevated levels of copper, nickel and zinc’ across the site, and toxic metal cadmium in the ground. The Scott Wilson study suggested housing should not be built on the ground unless the contaminated soil was removed. Remediation work was undertaken before the homes were built.

Scott Wilson Group declined to comment because it said Scottish Enterprise should do so. Scottish Enterprise said it did not wish to comment because it did not carry out the work.

In the late 1990s, Glasgow-based City Link Development built homes on the site, those now owned by Lanarkshire Housing Association and inhabited by Mr Redginton and his neighbours. Inside Housing tried to contact City Link Development several times, but was told there was ‘no one available’ to discuss the matter.

Lanarkshire Housing Association has tried to take action in response to residents’ concerns, but its plan alarmed residents. They claim that a few months ago their landlord infomred them that contractors would be coming into their homes to drill under their floorboards.

In March, Ms Craigmyle took out an injunction at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to stop the drilling from taking place.

‘I couldn’t take the risk of the floor being lifted and underneath being drilled,’ says Ms Craigmyle. ‘I don’t know why they [Lanarkshire Housing Association] were going to do it.’

Ongoing investigation

Ms Craigmyle has enlisted the help of Robert Kalin, professor of environmental engineering for sustainability at Strathclyde University, and Collins Solicitors, which won a case last year for victims of toxic pollution against Corby Council.

Professor Kalin told Inside Housing he and a team of specialist environmental consultants and engineers were planning to carry out an independent review of the site.

‘We are in the process of reviewing information provided by North Lanarkshire Council, BMK Wilson and Collins Law,’ he said.

‘Members of the team have also met with North Lanarkshire Council to provide information and discuss planned activities.’

The council said it arranged to meet Ms Craigmyle and the residents on 29 April to discuss the matter further but that the meeting was cancelled.

Ms Craigmyle said a previous meeting had been scheduled a week earlier, but that the council had said it was unable to meet then.

Charles Penman, pollution control manager at the council, said: ‘We remain committed to a dialogue with Ms Craigmyle and her clients. However, unless we receive credible documented evidence that supports the claims being made about this site, our hands are effectively tied.

‘We have co-operated fully throughout this process and have, as far as possible, answered all questions and information requests.’

Lanarkshire Housing Association said the council’s environmental report had identified no problems. Its housing services director said a public meeting, involving the association, council and tenants was held on Tuesday this week ‘with a very positive outcome’.

Ms Craigmyle says she hopes to be able to provide the council with further information in the light of Professor Kalin’s review of the site.

‘We want to present them [the council] with all the evidence we can in relation to what they require to do more tests on the land,’ she said.

‘We will be looking for them to invest their resources into more tests. If contamination is found, there has to be very serious decisions made as to where the people can live.’

Until any conclusive evidence is found, Mr Redington and his neighbours will remain in their homes and continue to cope with their health problems. One thing, however, is clear - they will not give up the fight until they find peace of mind.

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