Slow progress continues at Spodden Valley

When Jason Addy, spokesman for the Save Spodden Valley group, attended the Rochdale Township meeting on Wednesday 13 September he might have expected to be told about the progress that will be made on the Turner Brothers site in Spodden Valley following a meeting between the Council and developers of the site, MMC Estates, which took place two days earlier.

However, when Jason asked the chairman, Councillor Elwyn Watkins, about whether any progress had made over the interim measures that need to be put in place, he was met with a negative response. Jason asked: “For well over a year Council Officers and members of the public have made suggestions for reasonable temporary measures about the known asbestos waste sites where there are exposed deposits of asbestos. What has been done to ensure that the landowners erect effective barriers around the defined areas of the northern asbestos tips and to ensure that appropriate warning signs are in place?”
 
Councillor Wera Hobhouse responded to Jason Addy’s question by implying that Monday’s meeting had not brought the progress that the Council had hoped. She said: “I was at the meeting on Monday and to be honest there has not been a lot of progress, we repeated our request for interim measures to be put in place and all we can do is insist that this goes through. Actually enforcing the measures would be a long and tortuous route.

“The Council is trying to get the measures put in place and we have discussed enforcement but ultimately the responsibility lies with the land owner and they said that the signs they have put up are being vandalized.

“Progress has certainly been slow. Interim measures were the first thing on the agenda in Monday’s meeting and the land owners said that they are working on putting these measures in place, but I agree that this has taken too long.”