Toxic gardens given all-clear

Remediation works now complete

Residents in Blanefield have been given a clean bill of health for their gardens after five years of work and almost £700,000 spent to remove contamination.

Parts of the site of the former printworks in the village, now a housing area, were identified as meeting the legal definition of contaminated land in 2012.

The 13 households affected were faced with a bill of almost £600,000 to clear their gardens of toxic chemicals including arsenic and lead.

But the Scottish Government, UK Government and Stirling Council then stepped in to provide £300,000, £255,000 and £125,000 respectively to cover the costs and the remediation work began in June, 2014.

Remediation works involved the removal and safe disposal of the top 600 millimetres of the exposed contaminated soil and its replacement with ‘clean’ soil.

Stirling Council’s environment and housing committee was told last Thursday the project had taken much longer than anticipated but that work was now complete on all 13 gardens.

Officers said contaminants had been removed and there was no risk to residents.

“The initial works were undertaken on site from May 2014 until November 2014,” reported the officials.

“Unfortunately, as a result of these initial remediation works most gardens started to experience drainage problems during 2015. Specialist consultants at the Scottish Agricultural College were appointed in March, 2016, to investigate the problem and devise a specification for drainage works, which were undertaken from May to September, 2016.

“The gardens were given a period of time to re-establish, however in June 2017 it became apparent that seven properties required further drainage and landscaping works to resolve the issues. In August, 2017, additional landscape gardening works were undertaken at these seven properties. Unfortunately one garden continued to experience drainage issues and a small amount of additional work had to be undertaken in October this year. The issues in this garden have now been resolved.”

The total costs of the decontamination, remediation, drainage and landscaping works for the entire project were £685,511.

Labour councillor Danny Gibson said: “It’s absolutely great news to see this finally coming to a point where we can regard it as closed for residents and the council.”

Forth and Endrick Tory councillor Alistair Berrill added: “These families at one point were facing financial ruin. It is great that everyone came together to fund this and great that it’s now complete.”

The Victorian calico printworks closed at the end of the 19th century but no contamination was recorded when current properties were built on the ground in the 1950s. The UK government originally said it would not waive tax costs associated with the clean-up.

Both Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford and the then Stirling MP Anne McGuire, however, successfully argued that residents should not have to pay the clean-up costs.

No-one is thought to have become ill as a result of the contamination although at one point residents were advised to stop children playing in the soil and to wash their hands after being in the garden.

It’s great that everyone came together to fund this and great that it’s now complete Cllr Alistair Berrill