Asbestos fears at dock site
Last updated 13:34, Wednesday, 20 August 2008
THE government body overseeing regeneration of Barrow docks says it has found no asbestos at the site – despite ex-railway workers believing the potentially lethal substance could be buried there.
West Lakes Renaissance said three drilling investigations undertaken since the 1990s have yielded no sign of asbestos.
The drillings were carried out using maps drawn up the former British Rail.
West Lakes Renaissance spokesman Mike Baker said it was possible asbestos had been moved since maps of the deposits were made by British Rail in the 1960s and 1970s.
He said asbestos was safest when it was buried and, as the land would be raised for the Marina Village, any danger of disturbing asbestos was “a vanishing one”.
He said: “When we have specifically drilled with full protection and monitoring in these locations we have failed to find anything.”
Former railway worker Sammy Armistead, 74, showed the Evening Mail the area where he believes masses of potentially lethal asbestos lies buried on the site earmarked for 650 Marina Village homes.
Mr Armistead, of Annan Street, Barrow Island, was a steam train fireman at the engine sheds in the area in the late 1950s and 1960s, and later worked on a railway wagon repair site next to the engine sheds when steam engines were finished.
He said: “I was there when they brought engines and coaches which had a lot of asbestos in them, to be cut up. I know exactly where it was done.
“I wouldn’t buy a home there until I was sure they had cleaned it up.
“They just burnt the coaches, but they cut up the engines which had lots of asbestos in them. I think they just buried it. Asbestos was there all the time.
“The gauges on the engine footplate, they were all asbestos washers, and the lagging under the boilers, it was all asbestos under there. You were walking through the stuff.”
Fears about asbestos on the site were raised early this year by John Horne, of Rating Lane. Another pensioner, who did not wish to be named, also contacted Mr Horne and claimed asbestos from the railway work was buried in trenches in the area.
Mr Horne said: “He told me there was so much asbestos they dug trenches to bury it. I am not sure we can do anything for the generations that have gone before, but we certainly can do our best for the generations that are coming along.”
The sprawling Marina Village site is bounded by Cavendish Dock Road, The Strand, and Salthouse Road.
Mr Horne showed the area to local GMB trade union official and Barrow Asbestos Related Diseases Support group member Steve Forbes.
Mr Forbes said: “Barrow Borough Council and West Lakes Renaissance need to be speaking to these gentlemen because they actually worked on the site and have the knowledge of that area and they would tell them where to do their intrusive surveys so they can decide what is actually buried there.
“The last thing we want is developers digging up that land and airborne particles of asbestos being blown all over Barrow.”
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