Enforcement action could be taken amid fears over cyanide vapour and “explosive” levels of methane gas identified in the ground beneath a newly-opened Congleton cafe.
The Costa coffee drive-thru, built on the former site of the household waste recycling centre off Barn Road, has continued to trade since 30th November, despite Cheshire East Council’s request for further tests to be done on alleged escaping toxic gases.
A spokesperson for the café developer told the “Chronicle” there was “no risk to customers” and that the measures installed to stop gas escaping “exceeded requirements”.
But Coun Suzy Firkin said the town council’s Planning Committee had contacted Cheshire East’s planning enforcement team and the “Chronicle” to raise awareness to residents.
She said: “I think it’s appalling. We feel Cheshire East Council should not be allowing it to stay open until it is satisfied that Costa has complied with all the necessary planning conditions.”
The site was part of a wider area used for landfill between 1931 and 1979, which was licensed to accept inert, industrial, commercial, household and liquid sludge waste. It was used by townsfolk to dump household waste – from garden waste to household items – that could not go in the dustbin.
It was later tarmacked and used as the town’s household waste recycling centre, where residents could deposit waste into large skips. The tip closed in September 2021.
A condition of the planning approval for the cafe by Cheshire East was that it should not be occupied, or in use, until a report was produced to show that works to keep the ground safe had been completed.
Acting on behalf of Costa, a construction company applied to Cheshire East in September last year – three months before the café opened – to remove this condition from the agreement, on the basis that works carried out during construction had made it unnecessary.
But after going over the documents, including a “ground gas risk assessment” uploaded by Costa’s representatives to the council’s planning portal, an environmental health officer from Cheshire East recommended the authority should not approve the discharge of conditions.
In an email to Cheshire East planning officers in December, after Costa had already started trading, he said: “Methane was recorded at a maximum volume of 33.9%, which exceeds the explosive range of this gas (5%-15%).
“The report recommends any installed membrane to be vapour resistant owing to identified cyanide.”
He explained that the report was based on 12 spot-monitoring visits, only three of which had been conducted after periods of rainfall.
“We have concerns, therefore, that the ground gas regime at the site may not be fully characterised with the available dataset.
“We recommend that the applicant seeks advice from a specialist ground gas consultant to progress the site assessment.
“As the build has proceeded without agreement of the required protection measures, we have copied planning enforcement to this email.”
In a later email to colleagues, the environmental health officer said: “The high methane identified is very concerning and may require a more robust risk assessment or upgrade of protection measures.
“At this stage we haven’t agreed the phase two assessment let alone the remediation strategy. It appears, though, that the development has proceeded without regulatory approval.”
He said full details of the ground gas protection measures installed should be provided to the council, as well as any mitigation measures for the identified cyanide vapour risk.
A spokesperson for developer Rothstone Estates, acting on behalf of Costa, said: “We are working with Cheshire East Council to address these technical issues. There is no risk to Costa customers.
“During construction of the unit, measures have been installed which exceed those required in similar situations where risks from historic ground contamination exist.
“We are currently awaiting approval from Cheshire East Council that conditions can be discharged. However, this is taking longer than anticipated.”
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: “This is a live enforcement investigation, and it would not be appropriate to comment at the present time.”
(Photo: Costa Coffee).
