What reasoned and expert advice did TDC take re Sericol contamination ?

Waiting for an internal review by Thanet District Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Thanet District Council,

It has recently emerged that your CEO of 2008/2009 did in fact release a statement of position re Sericol and public health. I have asked your leader and your CEO to correct that statement and to reflect that correction back into remedy of TDC actions since the 1990s.

It is a strange statement (which you can obtain from your leader) as your CEO discusses matters of chemistry ("Vapours" no less) with a local blogger. At a time I was in fact communicating with people qualified to answer namely Environment Agency and Public Health. Why did your CEO not consult Environment Agency and/or public health I wonder.

He appears to have concocted a position for TDC based on Merlin's Schoolboy Guide to Basic Science. Fire Water, Earth, Air and the pesky "Vapours".

Your FOI is please disclose what reasoned and expert advice TDC obtained concerning environmental hazard to health re GEC re Sericol and re Thor ?

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council,

What you will find is that in 2014 TDC legal officer Mr BOYLE answered an FOI. Earlier this year TDC legal officer Mr HOWES answered an FOI. And you will see that the two replies cannot both be true.

A possible explanation is that Mr HOWES took the 2008/9 position of CEO Richard SAMUEL seriously !!

When you look at the 2014 FOI you will see recorded as permanent record that a copy of Environment Agency FOI response re Sericol water contamination was sent to UKIP leader Nigel FARAGE.

From this you can infer the incoming UKIP council 2015 knew they were inheriting a council that had failed to apply precautionary principle in planning law and had been derelict in its 2007 act duties to promote public health well being.

Here we must be careful as if there was wilful neglect to report material facts to partner agencies (QEQM CCG KCC Public Health England) it could have completed the conditions for the Common Law offence of Misconduct in Public Office which carries up to life imprisonment.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council

You are now overdue to answer. You will realise that with standard sub station refurbishing plus a product recall for defective welding that GEC at Westwood over the years had possibly 1000s of tonnes of PCB laden transformer oil to dispose of.

There was disposal at the factory site within the catchment of Rumfields Water Abstraction. Hence the question why was Rumfields only switched off in 1993 upon discovery of the tonnage of cyclohexanone that had leaked to aquifer from Sericol.

GEC, I am told by former employees, also tipped PCBs to landfill at what is now Pegwell Nature Reserve. There were checks for PCBs there in the 1990s which were negative. However it seems Environment Agency were never told the transformer oils were buried in barrels at both sites. What is now Westwood Cross and what is now Pegwell Nature Reserve Project Nemo. I am told at Westwood the drums were entombed in concrete.

I am informed that tests are scheduled for Manston. But I do not yet know if this is the need to test for toxic legacy from firefighting foam. I am surprised that the RSP application to National Planning has progressed so far without addressing the statutory duties in cumulative effect assessment and precautionary principle. TDC has been in breach of its 2007 act duty to promote public health wellbeing since 2007.

I feel you have delayed answering till the council solicitor returns from holiday.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council,

You are over due to answer.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council,

You are overdue to answer but when you do please ensure you account for the cumulative impact assessment implications of KCC reply

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

I think 1 mg per Kg is top of the cancer causing slope so 1.88 would be significant especially in top foot of soil.

You understand that the 1992 tests show that PCBs are indeed present in Pegwell Reserve land. Entirely consistent with the 1985 reports to TDC of burial of GEC Transformer Oils in barrels at Westwood (200 yards from Sericol and over same aquifer) and at Pegwell. As the barrels deteriorate the PCBs escape.

If TDC had responded diligently to the 1985 reports then Rumfields Water abstraction would have been turned off then. But as you know it was turned off in 1993 upon discovery of Sericol contamination of aquifer. I infer that TDC concealed its knowledge re GEC from National Rivers Authority when they were involved together at Sericol 1993.

What is fact is that in 2009 when Health Protection Agency called for public health epidemiology inquiry TDC concealed its GEC knowledge from the public health authority just as they must have concealed it from River Oak and National Planning and Project Nemo

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council,

This is one of a number of FOI requests you have neither acknowledged nor responded to.

Please expedite internal review and respond.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

Dear Thanet District Council,
Your FOI is please disclose what reasoned and expert advice TDC obtained concerning environmental hazard to health re GEC re Sericol and re Thor ?

That is a request for the ADVICE and from whom.

Answering with a concocted list of possible persons who were approached for advice is NOT an answer to this FOI>

You do not have any assessment for the calculated range for concentrations of cyclohexanone that reached water supply over a 30 year period. I infer that you never obtained expert and reasoned advice.

You have made a worrying admission now to National Planning about your failure to safeguard the environment and the water supply from toxic contamination risk at Manston.

So please in your internal review response explain how risk was assessed without quantifying that risk ?

And explain when cllrs were "Trained" for health promotion duties, as required by law, were they told by TDC officers about environmental hazards to health Sericol. Thor, Manston and GEC ?

To do your duty properly required that the environmental facts and public health advice be collated to inform cllrs. So a recent FOI response that it would be too expensive to collate that information rather implies that your officers misled cllrs who were charged to conduct public health promotion liaison duties (With QEQM CCG and KCC etc)

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

TDC FOI, Thanet District Council

We acknowledge the receipt of your email.

If you have made a request for information, it will normally be dealt
with in the period stipulated by either the Freedom of Information Act
2000 or the Data Protection Act 2018.

Other requests or queries will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Information Governance Officer

Dear Thanet District Council,

Please take account of your contaminated land strategy review and your reports to local plan inspector in your response to internal review

Yours faithfully,

Richard Card

TDC FOI, Thanet District Council

We acknowledge the receipt of your email.

If you have made a request for information, it will normally be dealt
with in the period stipulated by either the Freedom of Information Act
2000 or the Data Protection Act 2018.

Other requests or queries will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Information Governance Officer