Farmer 'not surprised' by potential risks at Cheshire landfill site

Tests have found there are "potentially unacceptable risks" from toxic waste, including banned "forever chemicals", at a former Cheshire landfill site Testing for a BBC podcast in 2024 found elevated levels of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) at the site in Alvanley, near Frodsham. The preliminary assessment for Cheshire West and Chester Council found "low to moderate" risks to human health at the site, and "moderate to high risks" at a brook that carries drainage water to the Mersey estuary. Paul Jackson, who farms the adjoining fields, told the BBC he was "not surprised" by the findings. Testing for the BBC podcast Buried found levels of PCBs that were 1,000 times over the recommended UK level in mud next to the Foxhill Brook, which runs to the north of the site. "I'm not surprised, not at all," Jackson said. "I know the facts, I've seen the test results. You don't need to be a brain surgeon to know that's a risk," he said. The site, known as Commonside, accepted PCB waste from the former British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) factory 2km (1.2 miles) away in Helsby when it operated as a landfill site between 1956 and 1975. Testing of mud at the BICC site for the Buried podca