Residents call for action on "dangerous" derelict site near Keynsham
Bath and North East Somerset Council says it has taken planning enforcement action
People living near a huge pile of unknown contaminants believed to include asbestos in the Somerset countryside are urging Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council to take action, amid fears children will be “at risk” if they gain access to the site.
Just outside the village of Queen Charlton near Keynsham, a huge site of outbuildings half-submerged in water, anaerobic digesters built without correct planning permission, and a quarry filled with so much unknown material that it now looms 6 metres above the surrounding ground is causing concern to its neighbours.
The site — which is bigger than Queen Charlton itself — has been disowned by the company who owned it, and now it is said nobody is keeping the dangerous site secure.
Rob Duff of Protect Our Keynsham Environment, a group of locals calling for the site to be made safe, said: “I have been a town planner since 1983 … and this is the worst site in the green belt I have ever come across.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Dan Norris, and Edmund Cannon — who are all vying to be elected the area’s MP on July 4 for the Conservative, Labour, and Green parties respectively — were among the about 30 people who held a protest outside the gates to the site on Wednesday June 5, calling on BANES Council to take action.
Mr Duff told the protest: “We don’t know what was tipped over there in the big hill. We don’t know what contaminants are there other than we know asbestos was tipped and woodchip. Other than that, it was uncontrolled.”
A statement from the group added: “There is strong evidence in court documents and planning documents which refer to asbestos being deposited or found on the site.
"We won’t know for sure until BANES Council does an inspection.”
Mr Duff said: “We are a kilometre from Keynsham, we are only yards from houses. If children are to come and play on here, they are at risk.
“So the residents here would like to know what’s on there. They would like the council to take action and investigate the site under environmental protection act powers and if possible involve the Environment Agency and either tell residents “its safe, we’ve cleaned it up , everything’s gone,” or make it secure.”
Signs on the gates read, “Danger: Deep water” and “Caution: Guard dogs on patrol”, but nobody is guarding the dangerous site.
Campaigners said that the company which owned the site has now dissolved, passing ownership of the site to the Crown as an escheat.
Mr Duff said: “The council could have acted on this site over the last eight years and haven’t done so. And therefore it’s now a problem.
“The crown will not act, they will not take responsibility of the site because they don’t have to take responsibility of the site.
"The land has literally fallen on them because the owners have gone away, the company has gone away.
“The only way this site is going to be made safe is if Bath and North East Somerset act and here, on behalf of the residents, I am asking Bath and North East Somerset to act.
“Come and have a look at the site, come and investigate it, and please help the residents ensure that they are safe, their children are safe, and the whole area is safe for the future.”
A spokesperson for Bath and North East Somerset Council said: “We have taken planning enforcement action by issuing an Enforcement Notice requiring the removal of the unauthorised anaerobic digester facility on the site. This notice remains in effect on the land and would bind any subsequent owner of the land.
“We are also considering taking further planning enforcement action in relation to the unauthorised waste deposited on the land.”
Despite their differing political views, the candidates for North East Somerset and Hanham who attended the protest were unanimous that action should be taken.
Mr Norris said: “I’m very keen on enforcement of this site taking place. BANES Council do need to act. We know there has been a huge amount of material— three times the height of me, 6 metres — has been spread across this general area.”
He called for the site to be inspected to find out what had been dumped, adding: “We need to know, and we need to discover what is going on, and then we need to act if it is appropriate. And I believe it probably is.”
Mr Rees-Mogg praised the “remarkable” campaigners.
He said: “The Environment Agency, at one point, was pretty good and was taking an active interest. That seems to have tailed off. But the council is singularly failing to enforce the planning restrictions here and has done, I’m afraid, for a long time.”
He added: “I’ve noticed that the council tends to enforce quite harshly on people who make small mistakes, private individuals who do something that’s a little more than they should, but does absolutely nothing when people ignore planning rules altogether.
“And this is where BANES needs to get its act together.”
Mr Cannon added that it was a “classic example” of the danger of relaxing planning laws. He said: “There’s a lot of people saying that the planning restriction makes it very difficult for developers and I think this shows that planning regulations are, in fact, very weak when it comes to protecting the environment and that is at least as large a problem.
“And before people start saying we should be building all over the green belt and relaxing rules to make it easier to build we need to think about all of the bad things and unintended consequences that could follow if we make the regulations much looser.
“And this is a classic example.”
Liberal Democrat candidate Dine Romero was not at the protest, but Mr Cannon said he felt she should have been.
He added: “She was the leader of the council during the time this should have been dealt with.”
Ms Romero was leader of the council for two years between 2019 and 2021.
She said: “Planning enforcement officers have done everything possible within planning enforcement laws. I expect the council and I, if elected, to work with all agencies to return the land to its original safe state.”
Also standing for North East Somerset and Hanham seat at the general election on July 4 are Paul MacDonnell (Reform UK) and Kathleen Haskard (Workers Party of Britain).