The toxic secret buried at the bottom of my beautiful garden
Businessman sues builder for £1m, claiming ‘waste material’ was used to landscape grounds
THEY are among the easiest vegetables to grow, but when Mike Wilson’s radishes and peas failed to flourish in the newly constructed garden of his £2 million home, he was stumped.
When his carrots also wilted and even the weeds struggled to survive, he knew he had to take matters into his own hands and get to the root of the problem.
But not even he could have imagined what was lurking under the surface of his large new terraced garden, with experts called in to investigate finding a range of waste, some including high concentrations of toxic chemicals.
Among the items were batteries and electronic equipment, insulation and roofing felt, plastic bottles and silicone tube packaging, and a significant amount of chemicals harmful to humans.
Now Mr Wilson has lodged a £1 million claim for damages at the Court of Session in Edinburgh and accused a builder of breaching their agreement to
‘He became concerned when he found glass in the soil’
renovate the garden. The sum is based on the cost of removing an estimated 4,000 tonnes of waste and contaminated soil from his property – 200 lorry loads.
Yesterday, at the six-bedroomed house in Cults, Aberdeenshire, he has shared with his son, 16, and daughter, eight, since his wife died in 2016, Mr Wilson declined to comment on the legal action.
But a close friend told of the businessman’s shock at discovering his dream garden was now a toxic mess
– and too unsafe even to allow his young daughter to play there.
She said: ‘He has been left utterly devastated. He’d agreed with the builder he could bring in rubble to create the raised garden from other building sites he was working on and had been assured there would be no hazardous waste.
‘What he got was far removed from that and he was kept completely in the dark about what was dumped there.
‘He only discovered the truth in lockdown when he decided to clear an area of ground and plant some easy-to-grow vegetables. He had concerns when he kept finding pieces of glass in the soil and nothing would grow properly.’
Mr Wilson called in an engineering firm and was dumbfounded by
what they uncovered. In papers to the court, Mr Wilson says he did not consent to the ‘importing and dumping’ of waste at the property.
He claims the builder, Graeme Cheyne (Builders) Ltd, of Blackburn, Aberdeen, imported ‘large quantities of toxic anthropogenic waste as fill material. In addition to various types of stone material, it included large quantities of materials such as batteries, electronic equipment, glass, bitumen, roofing felt, insulation, plastic bags, burnt remains, plastic liners, plastic bottles, silicone tube packaging and metal waste’.
The court papers add: ‘The waste includes chemicals which are a risk to human health. The concentrations of the chemicals present exceeds the maximum safe concentrations. It was physically and chemically unsuitable for use as fill material in a garden of a residential dwelling house.
‘Its use presents a risk to human health. In these circumstances, the use of the waste amounted to a failure to carry out and complete the works in a proper and workmanlike manner.’
Mr Wilson, who has reported the matter to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), adds that the cost of removing and replacing the waste with suitable fill material, re-seeding the topsoil with grass and engaging professionals to oversee the work will be around £937,572, plus interest.
A spokesman for Mr Cheyne, who denies any wrongdoing, said: ‘The action will be vigorously defended.
‘As it is before the courts and subject to arbitration, no further comment would be appropriate.’
Last night, a Sepa spokesman said: ‘Sepa is aware of the situation and an investigation is ongoing.’