Warehouse inspection ‘imminent’

AFORMER Woolworths distribution centre will be subject to a health and safety inspection in the ‘very near future’, after residents voiced concerns over the amount of chemicals Tetrosyl are keeping at the site.

The car care product company began using the former Woolworths site in Castleton last year, but bosses say the quantity of hazardous substances currently kept at the facility falls below that which requires official consent.

It has been waiting since April 2017 for the go-ahead to store nearly 10,000 tons of chemicals at the Royale Barn Road site - and residents have voiced safety concerns, as reported previously by the Observer.

Bosses at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) say they are unable to advise the council as Tetrosyl is yet to provide an adequate safety report for the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) regulations it is also subject to.

At a recent area forum meeting residents expressed their frustrations over the protracted process.

But their concerns may soon be allayed after the HSE confirmed an inspection of the site was imminent.

A spokesperson said: “The HSE inspectorate team covering this area normally focuses its priorities and resources on dealing with high hazard COMAH sites.

“However, due to residents’ on-going concerns about this site, HSE will be prepared to conduct a focused sample site safety inspection, for Health and Safety at Work purposes, in the very near future.”

But Tetrosyl bosses say they are currently working with the HSE and hope to have both a Hazardous Substances Consent and upper tier COMAH licence granted at some point in the new year.

Director David Rogers said: “We have pointed out to local residents on numerous occasions that our distribution centre at Royale Barn Road is, in fact, a finished goods warehouse, not a ‘chemicals warehouse’, as it has been repeatedly and incorrectly described.

“The goods we store are shipped directly from our distribution centre to supermarkets, DIY stores and the like. We have previously met with local residents and shown them the full range of our products so it is disappointing that these misconceptions as to precisely what we do persist. We have invested in excess of £16 million in what was, for many years, a derelict site.”

However, Mr Rogers added he did not have any knowledge of an impending visit from HSE.

Ward councillor Billy Sheerin, has welcomed the news and said it would go a long way to ‘alleviating’ residents’ concerns.

He said: “That’s progress, because the HSE has sort of stood back from it until now, obviously because of the constant concerns residents are raising about the place.”

Coun Sheerin said that residents had become increasingly anxious over operations at the site.

He added: “(The HSE) going in is going to be really good, I’m pleased.

“It’s good news because it does what we were asking them to do.”

Fellow ward councillor Jean Hornby said it had been a difficult time for residents, and she hoped the inspection would put minds at rest.

“I’m pleased this is going to happen, but we will have to wait and see,” she said.

“What we really need is more reassurance than we seem to be getting at the moment as to the chemicals they have got in.”

At last week’s area forum meeting, residents and councillors agreed they would write to the council’s chief executive, Steve Rumbelow, with their concerns.

Castleton ward councillor Billy Sheerin says resident have been particularly worried given the area’s ‘history of industrial fires’.