Badnell's Pit - council reassurance for residents

The Royal Borough is continuing to ensure that the health of residents living near the Badnells Pit site in Maidenhead is protected and disturbance at the site is kept to a minimum.

The latest reassurance came in a report approved by last night's Cabinet as the remediation project nears the milestone halfway mark - with work to restore the site scheduled to be completed by December this year.

Members heard that the council is continuing to work closely with residents, the developer Shanly's and other agencies including Thames Valley Police, the Environment Agency and the Primary Care Trust to monitor the site and to protect residents' health and minimise any inconvenience as a result of the work.

A series of conditions designed to protect residents from health risk and undue disturbance during the works are being closely adhered to including restrictions on the hours of work and the number of vehicles accessing the site.

Twenty-four-hour on-site monitoring is being carried out for vapour, dust, noise and vibration as well as monitoring of odour and wheel cleaning and load covers to ensure that contractors' vehicles leave the site clean.

Ongoing communication with residents includes:
• a monthly newsletter from the developer delivered to about 600 residents
• a residents' monitoring group which meets monthly to review monitoring reports from the site
• a dedicated website run by the developer at www.blackamoor-remediation.co.uk providing up-to-date information about the work
• three noticeboards at various prominent locations around the site providing information
• a 24-hour telephone line manned by the developer for residents to report concerns.

Graham Stallwood, Development Control Manager, said: "The remediation work on site is a very technical and detailed operation and it is important to protect residents' health at all times as well as make it easy for them to register any concerns as soon as possible.

"When residents were concerned last year about increased dust levels the council served a notice requiring the contractor to implement additional dust control measures to protect residents.

"Additional odour control measures have also been implemented recently by the contractor in response to concerns expressed by residents and the council about odours from the disturbance of the waste on site.

"All partners in this project take the health and well-being of residents extremely seriously and we will continue to prioritise this as we work together towards the conclusion of the remediation project at the end of this year."

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