gym pic stoires 9/9
Fears over Great Yarmouth firm Gleadall’s explosive material plans
Friday, September 9, 2011
10:00 AM
A PRESSURE group monitoring the comings and goings at Great Yarmouth outer harbour site has raised questions about a company’s application to store a component which can be used to manufacture explosives.
Great Yarmouth Scrutiny and Heritage Group has written to the borough council’s planning department about Gleadell Agriculture’s application to store ammonia nitrate.
And a Conservative county councillor said the “blast area” involved covers most of Yarmouth and part of Gorleston.
South Smallburgh division councillor Paul Rice, who sits on the county’s fire and rescue overview scrutiny group, said the public notice and Gleadell’s intentions had been brought to his notice by a port user.
Mr Rice contacted the chief fire officer Nogel Williams, but said he had been unaware of the situation and it has been passed on to investigate.
One of Mr Rice’s other concerns is that Yarmouth fire station is within the evacuation and blast area.
In it’s letter to planners, the scrutiny group states: “We already have an existing company storing ammonia nitrate on the peninsular. What is disconcerting is persons living on the West Bank Gorleston side are in the recommended evacuation area. Any property east of Middleton Road and Church Road is within a mile of the present store of ammonia nitrate.”
And they claim: “With Gleadell wanting to store ammonia nitrate in its granary this would mean we have a potential bomb to the north and south of the outer harbour.”
A public notice regarding the application was published in the Mercury on August 12 and the group say: “The planning advert implies that the ammonia nitrate is to be stored in Gleadell Granary, but rules governing storage state it must not be stored near diesel oil, grease, hay, straw or grain.”
They claim there are many vulnerable facilities including private sector businesses, public utilities and tourism businesses including the Pleasure beach and Wellington Pier.
They are asking the council if emergency resources are in place to cover the notifying and removal of people from the evacuation zone should an emergency occur, and point out the site is adjacent to the power station and gas pipelines.
Spokesman John Cooper said: “In this day and age of terrorism, the issuing of a licence to store explosive making material is being treated too glibly, the storing of ammonia nitrate, a terrorists explosive of choice, is not planning in any way for the future of the prosperity of the peninsular. Also are we going to use the peninsular for all the thousands of jobs the council and MP have been applauding themselves on in the press, or store explosive material making the Enterprise Zone a dead zone.”
Mr Rice added the public needed to be informed about the threat and a “robust evacuation plan” put in place.
“This would represent a major investment to cover such a scheme and would mean additional resources.”
The borough’s head of planning and business services, Peter Warner, said the council was processing the application in discussion with the HSE and other consultees and people have the chance to make their feelings known before September 27. Write to him at the Town Hall.
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10 comments
The CEO of Gleadell? Is that significant? Presumably it's a business decision to make use of their facility out of grain season?
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Tea&Biscuits
Friday, September 16, 2011
The CEO is repeating history, AN was stored at at previous location he 'headed up'.
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Mr Ports
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Before planning permission is given, a fertiliser company wishing to store Ammonium Nitrate must already have notified COMAH ( a government body consisting of the HSE and Environment agency) tasked with the handling of potentially dangerous chemicals. The Fire Department would have also been notified by COMAH and site visits carried out to assess the safety of the storage facility. Also in the UK they would of most probably been independentally audited under the FIAS Scheme which regulates the safe use, storage and distribution of fertilisers. All vehicles carrying fertiliser would have to be licensed and their drivers registered and in possession of appropriate certification. The store itself would have to follow strict criteria about how they stow the product, including the provision of fire breaks and a maximum permissable site tonnage. They would be legally obliged to monitor the stocks and report shortfalls suspicious behaviour to the authorities. All this information really isn't necessary but I think your readers should be armed with the facts as headlines can be misleading and incorrect. I doubt very much the company is planning to import bomb components as you so alarmingly stated and the need to ring 2 mile exclusion zones is in my opinion irresponsible and alarmist. I was born and raised in rural Norfolk and farming is our primary industry, it not only employs most of our citizens it contributes greatly to the nations economy. We are actually bloody good at it and with the aid of fertilisers we produce crops that help feed the world. So if the Great Yarmouth Scrutiny and Heritage Group uncover real evidence of wrong doings or plans to endanger the public then I will read on with interest and all credit to them, but I really fear its a case of lets attack anything to do with the Outer Harbour and prove it was a waste of money- Which time alone will prove! Talking of which, whats going on there with all the earth movers, they appear to be carrying out a lot of work on the site?
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Denver
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Well said Denver. This strikes me as scaremongering, when Mr Warner clearly states that the experts will asses the application (including HSE).
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DT
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Perhaps denver may like to meet me so I can show him how Disillusioned he is
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John L Cooper
Monday, September 12, 2011
As there has already been given permission to store AN in one store on the opposite site of the harbour, My first question would be, 'when has there ever been a full scale exercise of the existing evacuation plan? and if not why not? Secondly, Should this storage facillity not be further away from urban conurbations and outside the blast range of the already existing store. very much hope that H&S considerations will bring some sense to planners.
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ingo wagenknecht
Sunday, September 11, 2011
If you want to know what an amount of ammonium nitrate of similar size will actually do when it blows (and it produces it's own oxygen so pouring water on it if it's hot won't help) then look at the link below or look at "Texas City Disaster" in Wikipedia or google it. There are dozens of ammonium nitrate accidents and none of them are pretty. Look at Romania in 2004 for example and that was only 25 tonnes, the amount you will find on most farms around here...http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiTexas_City_Disaster
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fester1902
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Maybe if it all went up and took the Outer Harbour and those responsible for it with it then it wouldnt be such a bad thing.
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wes1975
Saturday, September 10, 2011
I predicted a long long time ago that the outer harbour would end up storing hazardous or toxic materials in some form. On 21 September 2001 an explosion occurred at the AZF Fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France where approximately 200-300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded. The explosion was caused by unknown causes related to handling practices. Twenty workers were killed at the site. The blast caused damage 2 miles away, causing disruption of telephone lines up to 65 miles away. Over 500 homes were left uninhabitable and 85 schools were damaged. A secondary explosion was also triggered in a neighbouring munitions factory.
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swift pint
Friday, September 9, 2011
I've been reading with interest all the comments made by the so called " GY Scrutiny and Heritage Group" concerning the Outer Harbour, design problems, mis-use of public money and transfer of assets- really interesting! Now i read about the threat of terrorism and danger of explosions in residential Great Yarmouth and can't stop laughing at the inaccuracy of the report and naivity of their spokesman. AN is heavily regulated, you can only store it in approved and audited premises in quantity, there are limits to how much can be stored and risk assessments carried out to make its storage safe. The product on its own is fairly inert, it is not explosive or flammable, the danger occurs when it is exposed to a secondary explosion, such as a detonator. This product is widely available as its primary role is as a fertiliser for our nations farmers. All around the county it is stored in farm sheds, dutch barns and left in fields prior to application to crops. If your real concern is security, don't you think we should be advocating its storage at sites similar to that at the Outer Harbour, where stocks are secure under lock and key and site access controlled by 24 hr security. The fact is one of the towns most successful businesses have been handling AN for donkeys years at the port and have approved storage in the southtown area, nearer to residential premises. Instead of constantly knocking the Outer Harbour, Eastport and the borough councillors this group should be promoting the visions and future development of the port. The Outer Harbour is now attracting business from what I can see? And will be there for the next generation and our children. Everyday you see local contractors heading to and from ships rigs, electricians, fabricators, cranes, skip companies, haulage contractors. They stop at the food shops, buy supplies at the industrial outlets that are dotted along the area and contribute to the local economy. I fear the scaremongering on here sometimes is just individuals with grudges and scores to settle, which is a shame. I'm all for public scrutiny and openess but please make sure its factual and correct first! Help our local businesses grow, don't just keep knocking them.
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Denver
Friday, September 9, 2011