WIX Archives
Re: Failsworth Scrap Yard
Posted by Mick on Mon Feb 25, 2002 08:40:24 PM
In reply top Re: Failsworth Scrap Yard posted by Ron Henry on Mon Feb 25, 2002 03:25:08 PM
>>>>I do remember that it was i
: n a really depressing, dirty, industrial location, so I'm
: surprised to hear that it's now a housing estate. I would
: doubt if current environmental rules would allow it.<<<<
In fact Ron, old scrap yards make very good housing estates, but only if they are for social housing !
Those who buy houses on the land are never told the truth about what is under their house though.
An old train scrapyard has recently been developed in my city, and is still going on as I speak, lots of new social housing has been built so far, and office buildings, and Barratts the builders will be doing the other half soon. All sorts of nasty stuff was dumped there during loco dismantling over about 100 years or so, heavy metals, asbestos, chemicals, oil and diesel spillages etc etc etc.
All the houses have gas monitors on them to detect gas build ups, these are constantly monitored by the local council who have an evacuation plan ready if there is a large build up in gasses in any of the houses. The people are not allowed to put a garden shed anywhere they like either just in case the shed fills up with gas, they have to place them on a sealed concrete base to keep the gas out.
With our need for thousands of new houses all these old "brown-field" sites are becoming much more attractive to developers, including most of the country's old airfields, and lots of them are contaminated as well........brave new world eh !?