Hazardous substance consents at Rhodia's Trinity Street factory Oldbury

Mr Carroll made this Freedom of Information request to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Mr Carroll

5 June 2010

Dear Sandwell Borough Council,

My freedom of information request is as follows.
1. Can you confirm what hazardous substance consents are in
operation for this site for Rhodia and Thermphos.
2.A list of the hazardous substances and the allowed quantities
that are allowed to be stored at the site?
3. The UN and Kemlar codes for these substances and the nature of
their hazard classification and risk phrases and safety phrases e.g
flammability, toxicity and effects in the environment.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Carroll

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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

5 June 2010

Thank you for contacting Sandwell Council.

Your request has been passed to the relevant service area, who will contact you shortly.

Please quote your reference number INT1-106028320 on all future correspondence.

Regards

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer Services
Transform Sandwell

www.sandwell.gov.uk

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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

15 June 2010

Attachment ENQ1 106226055 1 1R8SIK ACK.pdf
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Please find attached a letter from Sandwell Council in response to your recent contact.

This letter will advise you of the timescales for response and will provide our contact details should you need to get in touch.

If you cannot open the attachment please download the FREE adobe reader that can be found at www.adobe.com
Please do not reply to this e-mail but instead use the contact details found in the letter.

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From: Angela Goddard
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

7 July 2010

Attachment ENQ 1 106226055 Mr Carroll Rhodia and Thermphos Response.DOC.doc
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Good Morning Mr Carroll

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
Please find the response attached

Kindest Regards

Angela Goddard

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Assistant

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House

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Paul Swift left an annotation ( 7 July 2010)

I would like to see the full and open answers to this request on this site so that we can all see
This is the main reason why the request was made on this site

Paul Swift

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From: Mr Carroll

7 July 2010

Dear Angela Goddard,
Thankyou for your reply. However can you confirm in writing at this
email address if you are asking me to clarify what I believe is a
fairly precise and clear Freedom of information request, as you
have not stated whether you hold this information or not, as set
out in the provisions of the Act.
If you are refusing my request can you please explain why, as also
required by the Act, as your reply does not address whether you do
hold this information but are refusing to disclose it within the
provisions of the Act.
I will not be contacting Mr Baker by telephone or viewing the
documents in isolation and I would ask if you could clarify why I
should have to do this to obtain the information that I am seeking,
and why by implication Sandwell Council would not want the
information to be put in the public domain?
My Freedom of information request therefore continues to be delayed
until these points are answered.

"1. Can you confirm what hazardous substance consents are in
operation for this site for Rhodia and Thermphos.
2.A list of the hazardous substances and the allowed quantities
that are allowed to be stored at the site?
3. The UN and Kemlar codes for these substances and the nature of
their hazard classification and risk phrases and safety phrases e.g
flammability, toxicity and effects in the environment."

Yours sincerely,

Mr Carroll

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From: Mr Carroll

18 July 2010

Dear Sandwell Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Sandwell Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Hazardous substance consents
at Rhodia's Trinity Street factory Oldbury'.
A reply received by Angela Goddard of 7th July did not answer the
question of whether what information the council holds, or if I was
being asked to clarify my request. My follow up email read;

Dear Angela Goddard,
Thankyou for your reply. However can you confirm in writing at this
email address if you are asking me to clarify what I believe is a
fairly precise and clear Freedom of information request, as you
have not stated whether you hold this information or not, as set
out in the provisions of the Act.
If you are refusing my request can you please explain why, as also
required by the Act, as your reply does not address whether you do
hold this information but are refusing to disclose it within the
provisions of the Act.
I will not be contacting Mr Baker by telephone or viewing the
documents in isolation and I would ask if you could clarify why I
should have to do this to obtain the information that I am seeking,
and why by implication Sandwell Council would not want the
information to be put in the public domain?
My Freedom of information request therefore continues to be delayed
until these points are answered.

"1. Can you confirm what hazardous substance consents are in
operation for this site for Rhodia and Thermphos.
2.A list of the hazardous substances and the allowed quantities
that are allowed to be stored at the site?
3. The UN and Kemlar codes for these substances and the nature of
their hazard classification and risk phrases and safety phrases e.g
flammability, toxicity and effects in the environment."

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ha...

Yours faithfully,

Mr Carroll

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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

18 July 2010

Thank you for contacting Sandwell Council.

Your request has been passed to the relevant service area, who will contact you shortly.

Please quote your reference number INT1-109742024 on all future correspondence.

Regards

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer Services
Transform Sandwell

www.sandwell.gov.uk

show quoted sections

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From: Nigel Parr
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

21 July 2010

Dear Mr Carroll,

Thank you for your email dated 18th July 2010 concerning your Freedom of
Information enquiry in respect of Rhoda and Tempos.

You have asked that a review be conducted in respect of the Council's
handling of this request. Your email of 18th July states that the
Council's original response failed to answer your questions and your
earlier email of 7th July 2010 suggested that the Council had failed to
meet the requirements of the legislation as the response did not state
whether the Council held the information or not. This email also requested
to know why you were asked to contact John Baker and to come and inspect
the documents and why the Council would not wish to put the information
into the public domain.

It is the case that the Council did not respond within the statutory
twenty working days on this occasion and I would like to apologise for
this. However, I can assure you that your request was being progressed and
that it was an oversight that the response was not sent out within the
twenty working days in this case.

I would also accept that the response did not confirm exactly what
information the Council held in respect of your request. However, the
request for you to contact Mr Baker was so that you could discuss exactly
what information was held and so that he could assist with any questions
that might arise. The intention of answering the request in this way was
to offer assistance to you and I can assure you that the last thing that
either Mr Baker or Mrs Goddard wished to do was to be obstructive or
somehow prevent the information being placed into the public domain.

I should stress that even if information is not placed on the
[1]www.whatdotheyknow.com website, information disclosed under Freedom of
Information laws has still been placed into the public domain, even if it
is disclosed solely to an individual, as there is nothing within Freedom
of Information laws to stop a person sharing any responses with interested
parties.

However, as you have stated that you do not wish to contact Mr Baker, or
to inspect the files, the Council will arrange for the information that it
holds to be scanned and placed on the [2]www.whatdotheyknow.com website. I
expect this to be done by no later than the end of this week.

I would also like to add that Mr Baker can still be contacted should you
require any clarification in respect of the information that is provided.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel Parr

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Officer

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House

0121 569 3248

References

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1. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
2. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

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From: Angela Goddard
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

22 July 2010

Attachment ENQ 1 106226055 Mr Carroll Rhodia and Thermphos Response2.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia10002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia20002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia30002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia40002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia50002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia60002.pdf
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Attachment Rhodia70002.pdf
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Good Morning Mr Carroll

Please accept my apologies for the delay in providing you with the
information you requested. Please find attached our response and the
information requested.

Kindest Regards

Angela Goddard

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Assistant

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House

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Mr Carroll left an annotation (22 July 2010)

Good grief, what a nasty cocktail this lot would make.
Is it the "chemical Ali's" of this world that we should be afraid of or the chemical allies?
“Effluent arisings from across the site were treated to produce a slurry. The effluent treatment slurry was a slurry of calcium phosphate in water.”
This is what happened to the waste from all these chemicals according to Rhodia when disposed of into Rattlechain Mere and Gower tips- so that's alright then.
Trouble with these Hazardous waste consents is that councillors wave them through because they don't have scientific guidance. HSE, EA and fire services rarely object as the question is would additional quantities of such substances pose a greater significant risk to the public- probably not but when these materials are present on your doorstep what difference would a few extra tonnes make if it all went up in smoke- usually this is what happened to most of Albright and Wilson's former factories.
The tip is make enquiries before you ever consider buying a house in such an area, and don't trust solicitors acting on behalf of new developers.

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
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