Chemicals found under Motherwell estate

The chemicals were discovered following a year-long campaign by residents on a North Lanarkshire Housing Association estate off Watling Street in Motherwell.

Residents contacted lawyers in an attempt to prove land under their homes was contaminated and that their homes should never have been built, after experiencing problems such as nosebleeds, headaches, cracks appearing in their homes and the smell of gas.

The estate was built by Glasgow-based City Link Developments in the mid to late 1990s and the homes are now owned by North Lanarkshire Housing Association.

Barrie Redington, who has lived on the estate for two years, believes residents’ problems are linked to the site’s industrial past. North Lanarkshire Council has confirmed that electrical engineering firm Metropolitan-Vickers occupied the site where it manufactured medical equipment between the 1930s and 1950s.

Following residents’ complaints, North Lanarkshire Council has spent nearly £20,000 investigating the matter. It commissioned consultants WSP Environmental to carry out two reports on the land in March and April, which concluded that radiological risk to residents was low.

However, a third, more detailed test by WSP, which began on 9 August and involved drilling into the ground on the estate, has found toxic chemicals including trichloroethylene, which is a solvent used for dry cleaning and textile processing.

The council sent a letter to residents this week with a question and answer sheet explaining what WSP has found. It said: ‘We’ve found some substances we’d expect to be there, given the history of the site [but] we don’t think there is any risk to people using the open space area for normal purposes like dog walking or playing.’

The letter states that trichloroethylene, a solvent, ‘can be dangerous in high enough quantities’. Futher tests are being carried out to ascertain the levels of the chemical in the ground.

Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors which is representing the residents on a no-win no-fee basis, said that the council wanted to conduct more tests but that residents now wanted more information about how hazardous the chemicals are. He added that the findings so far suggested the homes should never have been built. He stated: ‘To have allowed the building of a large number of houses in Motherwell on what appears to be contaminated land is wholly irresponsible.’

The residents are likely to take legal action against the council if the chemicals prove to have damaged their health.

Mr Redington said he thought the council had been slow to pass on information about the site to the residents.

A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: ‘We are working with Lanarkshire Housing Association, which owns the majority of residential properties in the area, and NHS Lanarkshire, responsible for public health issues.’