More families coming forward over Corby toxic waste

The scandal was recently made the subject of a Netflix drama in February.

Susan McIntyre, Jodie Whittaker, Maggie Mahon, Tracy Taylor, Aimee Lou Wood
Author: Andrea FoxPublished 9th Sep 2025

Families are demanding a public enquiry into the Corby waste scandal as more fear they are affected.

It's as we're hearing from one mother that more people are coming forward to her, believing their children or themselves may have been affected, more mothers have been coming forward.

Tracey Taylor has been reaching out to find other families via social media and questionnaires, after the issue was highlighted in the Netflix show Toxic Town.

Tracey lost her daughter Shelby-Ann shortly after she was born. She says she has heard from 54 families alone and many with 'angel babies' who die shortly before or after birth:

"We've had scoured all the Facebook pages and where people had commented, we've reached out to them and brought them all together. In total, we've sent out 90 questionnaires.

"And as of today, there's 54 of those questionnaires come back, which obviously includes around about 18 angel babies. And if all the questionnaires come in, we've got a potential of 26 angel babies. We've got more children with limb differences."

Tracey says the families are calling for cases of baby deaths, childhood cancers, limb differences and adult illnesses to be investigated. Local MPs Lee Barron and Rosie Wrighting are backing their calls for a public inquiry.

They've even set up a petition.

Tracey says it's not just children that have been affected but parents have unexplained illnesses too:

"The amount of us that have had to have gallbladders removed is shocking, as well as fibromyalgia and degenerative disc disease.

"Yeah, it's just frightening."

In a landmark High Court ruling in 2009, Corby Borough Council was found negligent in its management of toxic waste at the former steelworks site in the town during the 1980s and 1990s.

The council denied it was negligent and that there was a link between the removal of waste to a quarry north of the site and deformities affecting hands and feet.

But Mr Justice Akenhead found there was a "statistically significant" cluster of birth defects between 1989 and 1999.

The council later agreed to pay compensation to the children affected.

We've reached out to North Northants Council, the group compiling childhood cancer numbers, and Des Collins the lawyer involved in the original 2009 case.

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