Can't believe councillors have been duped again by one of the oldest tricks in the book. A developer puts in a bid for the land at Foggy Furze Library as part of a tendering process, wins the bid and then magically finds afterwards that the land is 'contaminated' and asks for the price to be reduced to pay for 'decontamination' work.
The land in question is the bowling green area and hardly likely to be full of anything nasty as it was previously part of the gardens of Staby House - but they fell for it just the same, virtually guaranteeing that the next developer to come along will pull precisely the same trick.
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/ex-library-site-price-reduced-for-housing-1-5686263 (http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/ex-library-site-price-reduced-for-housing-1-5686263)
Your quite correct in this assumption Land that has been agreed for housing Warrior / Coronation Drive is almost certain to be toxic.
Many thousands of Props were soaked in bitumen / tar substance you could smell it before seeing it as kids we wouldn't go anywhere near the place.
Adjacent housing around the area had the top soil removed costing many thousands of pounds I would ask has there been any tests made before putting this land on the housing market?
And if NO then why not?
We have councillors who have absolutely no idea of building site working practices, maybe that's a good thing for the buyers who can get land on the cheap.
But a bad thing for the people of the town expecting full market value.
If it smells iffy, then it probably is iffy.
That or incompetent on both sides as both sides have plenty of experience and should know better.
Can nobody walk straight !
Our council doesn't have the best of reputations for getting the most value when it comes to selling off its assets but at this particular time, when money is so tight and it has millions to find, would you not think that it's more important than ever to do so?
If the officers accept that the land is DIRTY then it should be re-marketed as contaminated.
If the land is contaminated, won't it need to be investigated to assess the extent and more importantly, the nature of the said contamination......?