A DEVELOPER has revealed details of contamination that was found on land at the Horwich Loco Works.

Bellway Homes was granted planning permission last year to build 112 homes on the site off Chorley New Road — the first houses to be built as part of the 1,700-home Rivington Chase development.

And over the last few months, work has been carried out on the demolition and remediation of the land, which is located to west of the site near St Catherine's Primary School.

In recent documents submitted to Bolton Council, environmental consultants Curtins, which is assisting Bellway in its investigations, revealed there had been contaminants including Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals and asbestos found on the site.

Report author Phil Winterburn, director of Curtins, said: "The ground investigation identified the presence of contaminants within the 'made ground' soils across the general site area and within the bund.

"These comprise a combination of organics (PAHs), metals and Asbestos Containing Soils (ACS).

"Groundwater chemical testing determined several exceedances of heavy metals and PAHs with respect to EQS and EU DWS.

"It is noted that exceedance of PAH’s are all in locations where response zones included made ground with perched water generally present in that horizon."

The report states that the "made ground", an area of dry land made by people, that has been contaminated could be re-used as "general fill" across the development as part of the the "cut and fill" operation.

There has also been Japanese Knotweed discovered towards the northern boundary of the site, which will be removed as part of the remediation process.

And three of the buildings that are being demolished to make way for the homes have also been inspected.

There is believed to be asbestos contained in old electrics inside one of the garages at Unit 13, which will be dealt with by a licensed asbestos removal company.

Bellway Homes has submitted the information to Bolton Council in order to satisfy one of the conditions of its planning permission, which was to submit a remediation strategy. 

The report came after concerns were raised by Horwich residents last year regarding the potential harm that could be caused by contaminants on the entire Loco Works site.

Site inspections carried out before outline planning permission for the site was given in 2015 confirmed the presence of heavy metals, poly aromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos containing materials (ACMs).