Multi-council investigation could launch into dead shellfish washing up on Teesside coast
So far Middlesbrough Council has agreed to join the probe, proposed by Redcar and Cleveland Council
A new, joint council investigation into the deaths of dead sea creatures washing up on Teesside beaches could go ahead
So far only Middlesbrough council has agreed to the plans, proposed by Redcar and Cleveland Council, with Stockton still undecided.
Hartlepool and Darlington councils have declined the offer to be involved.
Stockton Council had the matter on the agenda of its own executive scrutiny committee on Tuesday, but no progress was made with the council continuing to seek more information about the scope of the scrutiny exercise and its terms of reference before a final decision is taken.
On the same day members of Parliament’s Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee held a hearing into the incidents and were due to receive evidence from the likes of PD Ports, the Environment Agency, Dr Gary Caldwell, an academic at the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University, Tim Deere Jones, a marine pollution consultant and Whitby Commercial Fishing Association secretary Joe Redfern.
Redcar and Cleveland Council previously called for the Government to re-open a previous Defra-led investigation as a matter of urgency and said the ongoing situation should be monitored by a special scrutiny committee involving all Tees Valley councils.
Councillor Philip Thomson, who seconded the motion, has described the deaths of crabs, lobsters and other crustaceans, which first began occurring a year ago at Seaton Carew, South Gare, Redcar, Marske and Saltburn, as a “disaster”.
Defra linked the cause to a marine ‘algal bloom’, but independent studies commissioned by the fishing industry have suggested that the chemical pyridine used in industry and unearthed by dredging in the River Tees could be responsible.