Scottish council commissions contamination tests
A Scottish council will do more tests on land under a housing estate, which residents believe could be contaminated.
People living on the estate off Watling Street in Motherwell have complained about the poor condition of their homes and ill health.
Their own investigations have led some residents to believe a munitions factory might have stood on the ground and remediation work before houses were built might not have been sufficient.
Resident Barrie Redington has carried out independent research and believes luminescent dials with radioactive paint were produced on the site in the 1930s and 1950s.
North Lanarkshire Council has already commissioned consultancy WSP Environmental to carry out two reports on the site.
The reports confirmed medical equipment was manufactured on the site in the 1940s but that the radiological risk to residents was low.
The second report recommended more intrusive tests on the site. At the time, the council did not want to begin more tests until it had met residents and their lawyer Elizabeth Craigmyle.
Although this meeting has not taken place, the local authority has decided to go ahead with drilling work, which started on Monday.
Charles Penman, pollution control manager at North Lanarkshire Council, said drilling work had been scheduled to ‘draw a line’ under residents’ concerns.
‘We have received no further communication from either the residents who made the initial claims about contamination, or from the lawyer who represented them earlier this year,’ he said.
‘However, we want to resolve this situation for everyone concerned, and this plan is our best means of doing so.’
WSP will drill boreholes up to eight metres into the ground at various locations on the site over a three-day period. Gas and groundwater will be sampled on a regular basis over a 16-week period and the results will be made public.
Picture credit: Sam Hardie
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