Familes win toxic waste case against Corby Borough Council
August 7, 2009
Eighteen familes have won a legal battle against Corby Borough Council (CBC) over claims that children born with deformities to their hands and feet was a consequence of their mothers' exposure to toxic waste during reclamation works at the 680-acre former British Steel sites in Corby.
During 1985 and 1999, millions of tonnes of waste, steel dust and slag was removed from the site in open lorries to a quarry north of the sites. The families' counsel claimed that CBC had been extensively negligent in its control and management of the British Steel plant and that the disabilities were caused early on in the childrens' foetal development when their mothers ingested or inhaled an "atmospheric soup of toxic materials".
It was stated that the rate of birth defects in Corby during the time of the clean-up was 300% higher than in the surrounding area.
The reclamation was a dirty, dusty operation and all of the 18 mothers came into contact with dirt from the reclamation work when they were pregnant. One mother worked as a security guard next to a reclamation site, another ran a pub used by site workers, whose clothes were caked in dust.
CBC denied that there was a link between the contamination and the birth defects. The judge ruled that there was an extended period between 1983 and August 1997 in which CBC was extensively negligent in its control and management of the British Steel sites. He concluded that there was a "statistically significant" cluster of birth defects between 1989 and 1999 and that the contamination affected pregnant women.
The council's negligence led to the extensive dispersal of contaminated mud and dust in Corby and these contaminants could realistically have caused the types of birth defects complained of. CBC is liable to pay, as long as individual claimants establish that their particular conditions were actually caused by the failures identified in this judgment.
Responding to the court's ruling, CBC Chief Executive Chris Mallender said the council recognised mistakes were made and accepted some of the criticism, but said it had still not seen evidence to confirm a causal link between the work and the defects.
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