Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsBromsgrove‘National security risk’ if tip report is revealed

‘National security risk’ if tip report is revealed

-

Redacted report

The farce surrounding Marlbrook Tip has taken another step into the surreal with the revelation that an engineer’s report was censored because of fears for national security.

The report into the controversial Lickey Hills site was ordered after the Environment Agency took over official supervision when a new pool there was classified as a “reservoir”.

The agency’s involvement was itself baffling to villagers because, as the report says, the pool “normally stands at or near empty”.

Now many of the report’s recommendations in the interests of safety for the site have been “redacted” from public view.

A letter from the agency to Bromsgrove District Council, under whose watch more than a million cubic metres of overtipping took place at the tip, cites fears of sabotage.

“During the current heightened status of threat to national security,“ it says, “the advice from the Security Service is that to release key details of the infrastructure or vulnerabilities of the reservoir would prejudice the protection and safety of the public through potential damage or disruption to the national infrastructure by acts of sabotage.”

Airing Bromsgrove’s frustration, district councillor John Ruck told Lickey & Blackwell Parish Council: “Our hands are tied by the Environment Agency who have taken over. It’s like fighting with a sponge!”

The next Marlbrook Tip Working Group meeting is at Bromsgrove Council House at 5.30pm on April 23.