Friday brief: Authorities accused of cover up, as they decide not to take action over polluted water findings
Our regular end of the week news dispatch
Campaigners have vowed to fight on as the public bodies responsible for looking after the health of Corby and its environment have decided not to take action following findings of heavy metals in the freshwater system.
Today Des Collins, the lawyer who helped a group of families in the late 2000s win a case against the former Corby Borough Council, has said a ‘cover up’ is going on in the town and only a public enquiry can get to the bottom of the matter.
Many in Corby fear that their or their loved one’s health issues could have been caused by a botched clean up of former steelworks land during the 1980s and 1990s. The toxic waste was taken to the Deene Quarry site - now Rockingham Speedway - but there are questions about how that was done and whether other unknown areas of the land have been polluted.
Earlier this month, findings of water testing of three brooks in Corby and the nearby villages, which was led by independent environment charity Earthwatch Europe, found there were heavy metals in the water, some at elevated levels and two hotspots of cadmium and nickel. Both chemicals were used in the steelmaking process and cadmium was implicated in the 2009 birth defects legal case.
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), which has a responsibility for public health and the Environment Agency, which has a responsibility for freshwater systems, had a meeting in private last week and have decided no further action from themselves is necessary.
North Northamptonshire Council said it ‘takes environmental concerns extremely seriously.’
“We have reviewed the Earthwatch Europe report in detail and discussed its findings directly with the Environment Agency (EA), who are the principal authority for the regulation of controlled waters, including surface water quality.
“The EA has advised that the initial data does not indicate a significant impact upon the freshwater ecology and they will continue to carry out statutory monitoring in the area.
“From the council’s perspective, there is currently no evidence of a pollutant linkage or unacceptable risk to human health requiring action under its statutory duties.
“We will however continue to monitor the situation very closely, keep talking with partners, and ensure residents are kept informed if further information becomes available.”
The EA has said it does not intend to do any more monitoring than it currently does. How it monitors currently is unclear.
Since the airing of Netflix drama Toxic Town last year Des Collins has spoken to 200 families who are concerned they may have been impacted.
In a statement given to the Northants Telegraph, he said:
“The Council today seeks to disclaim responsibility for pollutants in the waterways around Corby, yet it was responsible for ensuring the steelworks’ toxic waste was properly disposed of thirty years ago that is the cause of all this concern and it cannot outrun that responsibility. Nor can the Council ‘monitor’ the impact of pollutants in the water if it does not commission its own testing.
“Rather than denigrating the community’s efforts to test for the existence of heavy metals in the water, the Council itself must act, given the havoc that has been caused to the local community’s health over the years. We have repeatedly asked the council to confirm exactly where they dumped the steelworks’ waste and we are constantly stonewalled.
“There can be no better case for a public inquiry. We must expose and stop the coverup that is going on in Corby right now.”
Tracey Taylor, who together with Maggie Mahon, is leading a campaign to find answers, told NN Journal today the fight continues.
She said:
“They are trying to brush it under the carpet, but we will fight harder. They need to realise we are not going away. This is a different council [NNC], with different people to the previous council [Corby Borough Council]. They need to find their compassion.”
Earlier this week Corby Town Council agreed a motion to support campaigners. The Labour-led authority said at its meeting on Tuesday night that it would support the motion put forward by Lib Dem Cllr Chris Stanbra and join them in their call for answers and action. The town council said it would support the campaigners to fund another round of testing.
Speaking at the meeting Lisa Atkinson, part of the original group, said the former court case had used scientists and epidemiologists to prove the dangers of cadmium to human health. She said the families had ‘got it right’ then, but the local authority ‘is getting it wrong now’.
The town council said it would support the campaigners to fund another round of testing and offered to pay towards it.
NNC leader, Cllr Martin Griffiths, said last week that campaigners would be told this week the results of a promised investigation into whether there is a higher rate of childhood cancer in Corby than other areas. That has not been made public as yet, nor has an investigation by officers into areas of the town that could be potentially contaminated.
By Sarah Ward
News in brief
A derelict former shoe factory and other council-owned buildings in two Northamptonshire towns will be demolished at a £1.5m price tag, following concerns over anti-social behaviour.
North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) executive voted to knock down the Lawrence Factory site, in Desborough, and a number of council-owned properties in Saunders Close, Kettering, including the former Henley Day Centre.
The authority says the buildings have been subject to ongoing anti-social behaviour and arson attacks, and were highlighted by the police as a safety risk. The report adds that the demolition will also address “eyesores and an aged estate” within the council’s ownership.
Since the Lawrence site was closed in the 1990s, the building has gone through many different plans for potential redevelopment, but none have come to fruition. These included becoming a Tesco supermarket, an Aldi, a council-led social housing project, and a collapsed deal to sell the site to the local Co-op group just last year.
Both demolition schemes are expected to cost up to £1.5m in total, which will be funded by council borrowing. The executive member for finance said the one-off investment will put a stop to the burden of ongoing costs for 24/7 security, monitoring and emergency responses at the buildings.
For the Saunders Close site, this would reduce yearly maintenance and security costs from £135,000 to £15,000. NNC also says it has spent nearly £50,000 this year on the Lawrence site, which would be reduced to a ‘nominal amount’ after demolition.
While the premise of knocking down the buildings has now been approved by the council, planning permission will be required for any works to progress. It is hoped demolition will start in summer 2026.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Councillors have agreed an eight-week public consultation on the latest draft of the West Northamptonshire Local Plan, which will set out where thousands of homes will be built across the area in the coming years.
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) unanimously approved the next stage of consultation on the Local Plan at a meeting on Monday. It comes as major changes to the makeup of the county’s residential and employment footprint have been proposed to meet the government’s higher housebuilding targets, which will require 2,500 homes to be built in West Northants each year.
Under the draft document, up to 47,000 new homes could be built over the plan period to 2043. This includes over 33,000 homes in Northampton, 4,670 homes in Daventry, 3.050 homes in Brackley and Towcester, and thousands more across many rural villages and towns.
The authority has said the public consultation will launch later this month and will be publicised by the council via online and offline channels. This will be the fourth formal public consultation on the local plan since work began in 2019.
WNC has a legal obligation to prepare a local plan and to keep it under review. The plan will go through a series of public consultation stages this year and the administration says the final document must be submitted to the government by the end of December 2026.
Once submitted, it will be examined by the Planning Inspectorate, which will test the document for compliance with legal and procedural requirements and soundness.
When the final Local Plan is adopted, it will help guide planning decisions made by the council in future years.
By Nadia Lincoln
A man has been jailed for seven years after he was found guilty of a stabbing in Northampton.
Marian Leonard Sandu, 22, was with three other men when he attacked a man in Grange Road, Northampton on December 4, 2024.
He stabbed the victim a number of times before fleeing the scene.
After being found guilty following a 10-day trial at Northampton Crown Court, Sandu appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on January 7 where he was sentenced to seven years in prison plus three years on extended licence after the court found him dangerous.
A lifetime restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim was also issued.
Lead investigator - detective sergeant Barry Hughes said:
“I am really pleased with this sentence as it demonstrates the severe consequences that using a knife during an altercation can have.
“Thankfully in this case, Sandu is only looking at seven years in prison as opposed to a life sentence for murder, which is an outcome that is always possible when knives are involved.
“Tackling knife crime remains a priority for Northamptonshire Police and we will continue working hard to put more people like Marian Sandu behind bars.”
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North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) has been forced to defer two planning applications after residents complained that the authority had placed a consultation notice in the wrong newspaper.
The planning blunder involved an application in Oundle seeking permission for upgrades to the existing rugby pitch and a separate set of plans to build five holiday lets along the southeastern boundary of the Lilford Hall Estate.
Both plans went to a planning committee meeting on Wednesday evening (January 21) with an officer’s recommendation for approval.
Councillors were alerted by members of the public during the meeting that the planning permission advertisements, which are required for a full public consultation, were placed in the wrong paper.
Speaking about the rugby club application in public participation, Cllr John Wade, the mayor of Oundle Town Council, said:
“We are not opposed to the rugby club or its ambitions. Our concerns with their planning application are around poor process, inadequate parking, and development creep.
“A statutory notice was placed in the Kettering Evening Telegraph – which is not delivered in Oundle. That is not just a technicality, it undermines a key safeguard for residents, many of whom only became aware of the proposal late in the process.
“That failure alone should give councillors serious pause, especially given the Hooke Close case in Corby.”
This refers to another council planning blunder in recent years, which saw NNC consult the wrong street over a large warehouse planning application, placing the site notice on a road about half a mile away due to a mix-up with the other Corby Weetabix site.
According to the reports published by NNC on both proposals, advertising was placed only in the Kettering newspaper
After pausing the meeting for a break to check their records, officers apologised for an “administrative error” and told members they believe the notices should’ve been advertised in the Peterborough Telegraph instead.
They said they were unable to confirm that it had been circulated in the correct newspaper and changed the recommendation to defer a decision on the plans until it was clear that the consultation process had been followed properly.
Both applications were unanimously deferred by the planning committee to ensure that a full consultation is undertaken. It is not clear when they will return to committee for a decision.
By Nadia Lincoln
Westminster Watch
The Conservative MP for Daventry Stuart Andrew has said the Tory shadow cabinet is more united than it has ever been, after being asked whether the death of his party is ‘imminent’.
Appearing on BBC Question Time last night the MP, who is the shadow minister for health and social care, said his party is united, following some high profile defections.
Last week deputy leader Robert Jenrick quit the party to join Reform UK, which Stuart Andrew called ‘appalling’ and said Kemi Badenoch is ‘the strong leader we need’.
Read again
The paywall has now been removed on this story from earlier this week. Read the full article below.
Such a casual attitude to public health by Reform