In the week that my campaign to secure the clearance of the thousands of tons of illegally stored bales of industrial waste on the Twyford House site in Etruria became public knowledge, with reports in the local press and regional media, there finally seems to be some movement (no pun intended) on the Boatman Drive sinkhole situation. I have been fighting for solutions to both serious public safety issues since I was elected in 2019. It has been a source of frustration that the pace of progress has been defined by the legal complexities of who is responsible for footing the bill.
The residents of properties off Boatman Drive have suffered a road closure due to a sinkhole caused by subsidence which is getting worse. The cause cannot be agreed by the parties involved – namely the developers, Severn Trent Water and the Council. Stoke City Council closed the road more than two years ago under their statutory duty of public safety. However, the misery for residents who have been denied vehicular access to their properties is ongoing because no party has been willing to progress a solution for fear of the cost of accepting liability to a problem that may well extend far beyond the visible damage at present. They are tying red ribbons to the fence to mark each day that the barrier remains in place as a visible record of their frustration.
The Council wrote to residents before Christmas to inform them that exploratory work will be taking place in February to try and identify the problem. The problem of fixing it - if indeed it is possible to fix it – is another matter. I am pleased to report that the three parties have also met following many months and appear willing to share information that will help make progress with solutions. It is, after all, a growing problem both for the Council on the highway issue and Severn Trent as the subsidence is causing water pipes to break under pressure. The question of whether the remediation work on the original site has caused this problem and what responsibility has now transferred to homeowners also needs to be answered. I have spoken to the roads minister, the housing minister and the Environment Secretary for guidance from the government on the issue.
My role as the local Member of Parliament has been to press for action at government level and locally. In the case of Twyford House, the legal process of prosecuting the previous owner and discussions between the Environment Agency and the new owner have caused further delays in clearing the site. However, the strategic importance of the site, next to the West Coast mainline rail tracks, next to the A500 and a tributary of the River Trent, have meant that a major fire on the site would be catastrophic for the city. There have already been blazes nearby.
Where there is a wider public safety risk, it cannot be right to tolerate long delays in finding a lasting solution. Whilst I recognise the legal complexities of such problems are challenging, the cost of delaying remedial actions can be much greater. In the case of the Twyford House site, the evacuation of hundreds of homes, businesses and the hospital, the closure of the A500 and the mainline railway and pollution of the Trent, in the case of the subsidence in Boatman Drive, subsidence and collapse of further roads and homes. A recent BBC report questioned whether it is a good use of taxpayers' money to resolve issues caused by private or public companies. In the case of Twyford House, the current landowner was not the polluter, however in purchasing an abandoned waste site for £1, they knowingly took on the responsibility for clearance. Their application for the abandoned waste site grant scheme was unsuccessful, and once again, the progressing clearance plan stalled. I wrote to the Prime Minister to highlight the danger and worked with DEFRA, the Environment Agency and a multi-agency taskforce locally until I had secured an agreement to fund the site's clearance.
I will always argue the case for putting the safety of residents and the community first and arguing about the bill after. On a wider issue, I will be pressing for reforms to legislation to increase the fines and custodial sentences for waste criminality. Currently, the punishments faced by unscrupulous criminals who blight our landscapes or fill warehouses and landfill sites with illegal waste are derisory. Causing a serious threat to public health and public safety must be treated as a very serious offence with the punishment matching the crime.
