• Search

Spodden Valley

Council speaks out on Spodden Valley development

Rochdale Council has spoken out about the current situation surrounding the development of Spodden Valley in response to a series of questions posed by Rochdale Online reporters.

The questions and the responses given by the Council are now published here in full.

Earlier this month the owners of the site, MMC Estates, indicated that the only way to make the site safe is through a development led remediation of the site.

Date published: 24/10/2008

Judgment for status quo in “Trigger Issue” case

Jason Addy

Asbestos Victims Support Groups welcome the judgment announced which confirms that insurers who were “on” risk at the time someone was exposed to asbestos are liable to pay compensation....

Date published: 23/11/2008

Research boosts campaign for green space in Spodden Valley

Overhead view of Spodden Valley in 1999

Campaigners calling for a 'green lung' link along the Spodden valley from Rochdale town centre to the South Pennine hills have welcomed a new study that confirms living close to open green...

Date published: 10/11/2008

Is the council presenting a fait accompli over asbestos site?

Exposed asbestos in the Spodden Valley

Mark Russell, Managing Director of MMC, the Heywood based developer that owns the Turners asbestos site, has told Rochdale Online the only way Spodden Valley can ever be rid of the killer...

Date published: 15/10/2008

Rowen raises continuing use of asbestos in Parliament

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) on the continuing use of asbestos overseas.

The EDM raises awareness of the continued use of asbestos in the Third World. It also requests that the Government works with the International Labour Organisation to ensure the implementation of the Convention Concerning Safety in the Use of Asbestos 1986 and the United...

Date published: 16/10/2008

Spodden Valley financiers nationalised

The bank which holds a mortgage charge on the Spodden Valley site has been nationalised.

In a move described in the media as one that "fundamentally changes the nature of banking", Gordon Brown decided that the Government has to take a majority shareholding in The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after he found it was in a more vulnerable state than had been thought....

Date published: 13/10/2008

Labour group express further shock at Sir Cyril revelations

The site of the former T&N factory

Local Labour politicians have expressed shock and disbelief at the latest allegations to emerge about Sir Cyril Smith’s relationship with asbestos giant T&N after correspondence between Sir...

Date published: 23/09/2008

Did T&N write Cyril Smith's 1981 speech on asbestos?

Sir Cyril Smith

Rochdale Online again has first access to original archived documents. These newly revealed documents from asbestos company archives, once believed to be destroyed, shed new light on the...

Date published: 17/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 2

Asbestos - Early knowledge of danger: 1898
The document that accompanies this article is an excerpt from the H.M. Factory Chief Inspector's 1898 report that makes specific mention of asbestos....

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 3

T&N Knowledge of working conditions: 1932
It took over 30 years before any government legislation was drafted to protect some asbestos workers from harm. Just prior to the 1931 Asbestos Industry Regulations coming into force there is a letter from TBA's insurers Commercial Union, dated 23 March 1932, which accompanies this article....

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 4

T&N Known environmental asbestos hazard: 1957
Two documents from 1957, accompanied as images in this article, give an insight into the amount of dust emanated from the Rochdale asbestos factory and the amount of asbestos dust collected and “dumped to waste”....

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 5

Corporate concern about legal liability and 'precedents': 1924
The death of TBA worker Nellie Kershaw in 1924 coined the medical term “asbestosis”. In TBA's archive is a note explaining why Nellie's widower wouldn't be receiving any funeral expenses from the asbestos factory because to do so would: “create a precedent and admit responsibility.”...

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 6

The damning 1964 letter quoted in part 5 of this series of articles from T&N's solicitors also acknowledged:
“It is now clearly established that where asbestosis bodies present in the lungs have caused fibrotic changes lung cancer may follow."...

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 7

T&N, Cancer and Public Relations: The 1960s
In 1965 a Sunday Times investigation made clear to the public that even low-level exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma....

Date published: 11/09/2008

T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up

The Turners site in Spodden Valley

Following recent controversial claims by Cyril Smith about asbestos, health and Turner & Newall (T&N), Rochdale Online has been given first access to a series of documents that clearly...

Date published: 11/09/2008

More News