And Coun Milan Radulovic (Lab), who represents Eastwood Hill Top on the council, warned developers Gleeson Homes that the fight was ‘far from over’ and that he would be writing to housing secretary Michael Gove MP (Con), demandng he call the decision in.
Coun Radulovic was reacting after the Planning Inspectorate upheld Gleeson’s appeal to develop the old Matkins Tip site after the council originally rejected the proposals for the new properties off Braemar Avenue back in December 2022 after 1,000 objections from neighbouring residents were received.
The tip was closed in 1985 and residents fear that disturbing the land could relase toxicity from the landfill site into the air.
Gleeson has said it would never carry out development which could endanger new or existing residents and that the proposed new housing was some distance from the old tip site.
But councillors were not convinced and rejected the proposals – only for their decision to now be overturned on appeal.
Coun Radulovic said: “I’m disgusted, it’s an appaling decision, I think it’s wrong and, consequently, I shall be writing to the secretary of state asking him to call it in on the grounds that the evidence put forward as to the site of the extent of the tip and investigation does not, in our opinion, does not reflect the extent of the contamination dumped in there and the dangerous situation that will be caused by disturbing it.
"There is also an issue about whether we can call for a judicial review and that’s something I will be discussing with the council chief executive about possibly taking this to high court."
Coun Radulovic also criticised the guidelines that allowed the planning inspector to overule the council, saying building houses is seen as more important that public health and safety fears.
He continued: “The inspector has guidance from the secretary of state which I think is fundamentally flawed.
"I have been very critical of this over recent years, I think the damage done to the construction industry because of it is considerable and far too many decisions are taken based on the advice and guidance of the secretary of state when what should be taken into account are the views of local people, especially in a situation like this.
"We don’t know the extent of what was tipped into that site because part of that tip was unlicenced because they tipped in areas that weren’t part of the licence agreement and that was my arguement at the time.
"This is far from over and I shall be writing to Mr Gove immediately, demanding he call this in and hold a public inquiry, overseen by the Environment Agency, as the extent of the contamination of that tip and what went into it.”