FEARS are mounting that toxic contaminants may have leached from the polluted Ravenscraig social housing building site after dirty floodwater spewed out onto a busy Greenock road. The escape from the sprawling 83-acre estate which has confirmed multiple exceedances of potentially harmful chemicals lasted for more than nine hours, according to eyewitnesses. Developers of the poisoned land insist that the health and safety position on contamination has not changed as a result but did not explain how they had arrived at this conclusion. Meanwhile, Inverclyde Council despite setting a planning condition that all surface water originating within the site shall be intercepted within the site says it has no remit to act.
AN organisation established by the Scottish Government was a key player in the procurement and delivery of a contract prior to the sale for £1 of Ravenscraig Hospital and its toxic grounds. The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) helped NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde secure the services of property specialists Montagu Evans, who were paid more than £30,000 of public money directly from health board funds. But despite the large bill hugely outstripping the £1 land transfer itself health chiefs had no direct correspondence with the SFT during the entire tendering process, the
Telegraph can reveal. The health board, whilst marketing only the hospital building through Montagu Evans, was manoeuvring to offload the category B listed edifice and its sprawling contaminated grounds to a private company.
Telegraph s coverage of toxic land issues at Ravenscraig from an official document. Municipal Buildings bosses wanted to brand our reports regarding the contentious social housing development unsubstantiated and to declare that they contained unfounded allegations. The move would also have led to the council itself publishing an untrue statement regarding concerns over the project in its five-year Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP). But councillors have halted officials in their tracks and unanimously agreed that the provocative wording must be immediately deleted from the draft strategy document. The cross-party move by the environment and regeneration committee came after SNP member Jim McEleny voiced a strongly worded objection to what senior council officers had sought to do.
A probe was ordered by Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe last week. It came after a claim that earth had been moved to an area near Pennyfern without permission was relayed to the local authority by concerned community councillors. Planning chief Stuart Jamieson told elected members: Recognising the sensitivities associated with this application, and also recognising the profile of this application, it s only appropriate that an independent investigation take place to allow us to find out what the applicant has done, or not done. The council has now clarified the position following an enquiry from the
Telegraph. A spokesman for the local authority said: The independent element is in reference to the fact the investigation is independent of the planning application brought before the planning board.