CONTROL of Ansa’s approved waste transfer station in Middlewich could be transferred to the Environmental Agency if harmful chemicals are recovered from the site.

Cheshire East Council’s (CEC) strategic planning board approved the development in September.

The site was commandeered by the Ministry of Defence in 1917 to produce phosgene and chlorine for chemical weapons purposes during the First World War.

Wates Construction, in partnership with Cheshire East Council, have brought in RPS Energy to search for harmful materials.

This will involve core drilling into the ground, taking samples and carrying out ground scans of the site.

“Cheshire East Council as an authority to whom have now bought this contaminated land have many real issues with this site and its future use,” Middlewich Town councillor, David Latham said.

David Denman, Technical Director at RPS Energy, said the work currently going on is ‘precautionary’, and said they were confident no chemicals would be found on the site.

Mr Denman said the site is ‘very low risk’ because only the chemicals – not the weapons themselves – are believed to have been produced on the site during the First World War.

However, Cllr Latham – who has led the Action Against Ansa campaign – questioned how RPS have come to this conclusion, given the lack of information currently available.

“The Ministry Of Defence could not and do not have any details of these sites anymore,” Cllr Latham said.

“These documents were disposed of in light of the Cold War when it was not deemed responsible to have made or dealt with these type of weapons.

“If there are no records, public or not, how can any company say whether there isn’t any weapons on site?”

Cllr David Latham argues that if contaminants are found, it could have serious repercussions on the borough council.

Government legislation states that any land on which the manufacture, production or disposal of chemical weapons has been carried out at any time, should be classed as a ‘special site’.

Local authorities, in this case CEC, are responsible for identifying land in their areas which meets the statutory definition of contaminated land.

Once land has been determined to be contaminated land and where the Environmental Agency and the Local Authority agree, (The Secretary Of State decides) that the land is a special site.

The Environmental Agency will then take over the role of the enforcing authority from the local authority.

Cllr Latham said: “If this site was used for the making and storing of chemical weapons production as it clearly was, then it should be clearly labelled as a special site.”