Dear Sir,
For some reason, I have chosen today – after 30 years of deliberation – to request that The Thurrock Gazette investigates and subsequently publicises an enormous scandal which, I believe, implicates Council Chiefs, Police and any number of unscrupulous tipping companies and their employees.
A brief overview then, on which, I hope, you will base a decision to look into this matter and bring to account those responsible for what was – and still is – a shameful and dangerous period in Essex’s history.
Location: South Ockendon, Essex. The Ham River Grit Company’s exhausted gravel-extraction site. (hundreds of acres)
Period: mid-sixties to mid- seventies.
The Scandal: The back-filling of four large, beautiful, clear, thriving, popular lakes with tens of millions of tons of lethal industrial waste, including granulated cyanide, acids, many millions of phials of dangerous barbiturates and other drugs, plus any number of other unknown chemicals.
The basics: The lakes were leased by a small angling club whose members (400) put their hearts and souls into the upkeep and conservation of this formerly wonderful area.
Thirty years on, and with building land in great demand, not so much as an acre has been built upon or developed in any way. This is, I firmly believe, because the Thurrock Council is petrified at the prospect of developers/ the public / the media discovering what lies under the topsoil of the site.
Thurrock Council allowed Cunis of Rainham, Edwin Clarks, Doxodec – to name a few of the offending dumpers, to dispose of millions, perhaps billions of gallons of the foulest chemical-mixtures – under the cover of darkness.
Those of us who regularly night-fished the adjacent lakes witnessed the non-stop 10 – 15 strong convoys of ‘Sludge-Gulpers’ racing in, night after night for many years, to regurgitate their horrendous loads into the soil. Even at three in the morning, the urgency of their missions was quite obvious…dump as much as possible as quickly as possible and get out.
Come daylight, the nature of the refuse and the pace at which it arrived returned to ‘normal’.
As an outraged 15 year old, I regularly wrote to the Thurrock Gazette on this matter but my published letters always went unanswered by the Council.
I once dumped a sackful of poisoned fish on the steps of the Council’s area office along with a letter containing my address – but no response.
In 1967, I fell waist-deep into a pool of caustic sludge and spent three months laid-up in hospital and at home recovering from the terrible burns on my legs, face and hands. Thank God for quality underpants.
Around that time, my brother and I found a small mountain of glass phials – manufactured by May & Bakers – containing lethal drugs. There were literally millions of them. We took samples to the police-station but were questioned only about our authority to be on the dump and we heard nothing more despite requests for updates. The phials, incidentally, were dumped forty or fifty feet from the Lennard School fence. I could take you there now.
On two occasions, I retrieved from the fishing club’s main lake half-full drums marked ‘Granulated Cyanide – Extremely Hazardous’.
My late friend, Martin Gay – who went on to achieve national recognition as an author – was threatened with violence on attempting to photograph the night-time activities of the dumpers.
The lives of hundreds of decent, conservation-minded people were irretrievably blighted by this act of corporate vandalism, though we must accept that the use of this beautiful area as a legitimate tip was legally sanctioned.
But, to my mind and that of many other witnesses who can still be contacted, the dumping regime was mired in corruption and back-handers – large ones.
Today, instead of a square mile of clear lakes and attendant wildlife appreciated and loved by the people of Ockendon and an asset to the county, we see a desert of lifeless, dusty earth, undeveloped, quietly neglected for fear of an investigation. It’s been 34 years since the bulk of the tipping took place, yes, ancient history to many, but ‘yesterday’ to the thousands of decent people who walked, fished and bird-spotted in this area.
WHY NO DEVELOPMENT? WHY NO HOUSING?
I urge you to investigate this scandal; I can supply you with the names of witnesses who would be only too willing to give you their stories.
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Cliff Hatton.
I shall re-contact the Thurrock Gazette reporter and get back with any news – but don’t hold your breath: nobody ever wanted to talk about this scandal…
