
Thornton-Cleveleys: New tests find raised carcinogen levels
AGC Chemicals Europe, which took over part of the ICI plant, has said it stopped using Perfluoroalkyl and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in 2012, and that 40 years of monitoring showed no "significant impact" from emissions.The authority said scientists had analysed the soil samples taken from within 500m of the Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone.The council said analysis of the soil samples "confirmed that more detailed sampling is now required in an area to the south east of the Hillhouse site".They said it was important to note that no part of the area had been formally determined as contaminated, adding that finding answers quickly was an "absolute priority".Last year, after previous testing, Wyre District Council warned people living near to the site not to eat fruit and vegetables grown in local soil.A recent BBC investigation into concerns about PFOA in the area heard from residents who feared their health may have been affected by the presence of the chemical in the local environment.
Drop-in session
The majority of the 63 locations tested within 500 metres of Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone were considered lower priority for further sampling at this time, the council said.Letters are to be sent to residents whose properties were sampled as part of the programme.Current advice from the UK Health Security Agency is that local residents should follow the usual hygiene precautions by washing hands thoroughly after working or playing in the garden or allotment, especially when in contact with soil and before handling food or drink.The Food Standards Agency advises residents to wash and peel any produce grown in the soil within 1km of Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone to remove any soil or dust before eating.A drop-in session for residents to ask questions about phase two of the investigation is taking place at Thornton-Cleveleys Football Club between 16:00 and 19:00 BST on Wednesday 23 July.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
BBC comedy legend sparks concern as he cancels string of public appearances due to ‘medical situation'
A BBC comedy star sparked concern after cancelling a string of public appearances due to a 'medical situation'. Red Dwarf aired on and off from 1988 to 2020, with stints on BBC Two and Dave. 3 3 3 Chris Barrie, 65, who played the holographic Arnold Rimmer, has cancelled upcoming public appearances owing to a "medical situation". Over the weekend, the actor had been set to appear at London Comic Con. Chris would have joined co-stars Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn and Hattie Hayridge. Posting on his website, the star shared: "Hello everyone. "I'm going to be brief, but over the last week I have been dealing with a medical situation which I am only just beginning to get my head around. 'In the light of this I shall be attending no more events over the summer and into the autumn. "Updates on all this will be issued as and when.' Continuing, Chris confirmed he would be keeping one date in his calendar for the time being. Namely, his November 9 appearance at Newcastle comedy event Scarborough Unleashed. He explained: "In the meantime I shall leave Scarborough on the itinerary for now and will look forward to returning there in the early winter. Red Dwarf's Craig Charles reveals there will be more specials of hit show "Obviously I shall miss not being with the posse in London this Sunday but I'm afraid that is the way it is. Enjoy!' Red Dwarf follows the adventures of a group of oddball characters who are stranded on a spaceship three million years in the future. The show's main character Dave Lister wakes up after three million years in suspended animation to find out the rest of the crew on his spaceship were killed in an accident. This would have left him alone in outer space - if not for the strange companions he met along the way. This includes the hologram of his former bunkmate, the ship's computer, an android he rescues from a shipwreck, and the creature that evolved from what was his pet cat. It first aired on BBC2 in 1988 and ran until 1999, before it moved to UKTV channel Dave ten years later. Last year, it was announced the core cast would reunite at Comic Con Scotland in Edinburgh.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Cumbria's £19m new diagnostic centre set for opening
A £19m diagnostic health centre is set to open to patients later this month, health bosses have confirmed. North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) said it had taken ownership of the Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in work has been ongoing at the town centre site for over a year, with the centre set to provide MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound and lung function tests to the local community. Dr Adrian Clements, executive medical director, said the centre would "make a huge difference" to those living across Cumbria. "Having a centre like this embedded in the local community is key to the future of the NHS," he forms part of a national programme to improve local access to diagnostic testing. The £19m funding was secured from the national CDC programme, which aims to reduce health inequalities in the region by providing people with access to care closer to home. The trust said it had been handed the keys to the building by construction firm Graham and it had come in on time and on are due to begin training before it is set for a phased opening to patients later this month. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.


Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Does Wes need a jab?
Health secretary Wes Streeting wants fat jabs available on the NHS. When I asked him on GB News if he had tried one, he said: 'I have got a complex now. I am never coming on this channel again. Evidently, I have not been on the jabs.' He added: 'I want them to be available on the NHS. I am going to go away and look at my BMI. You have given me a complex.' After the interview, Streeting told his team: 'Cancel the pub – we are going to the gym!' I think he was joking. Present and correct Author Mark Twain once reacted to newspaper accounts that he had died by saying: 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.' Last week there was a Twain moment in London's clubland. Catherine Brumwell, the membership secretary at the Cavalry and Guards Club, wrote to members: 'I appear to have killed off a member who is still very much alive and well. For anyone who reads the In Memoriam, please know that Capt William Matthews, Coldstream Guards, has just called us and assured us that he is in fine fettle.' Surely Capt Matthews is now owed a life membership? Heads won't roll The House of Lords new front door now costs £9.6 million, £3.5 million over budget. 'It is a scandalous waste of public money,' exclaimed Tory peer Andrew Robathan in the Lords, turning to the hideous 10ft high security fence which was erected last month. 'Who gave the security advice on the useless door and the ridiculous and ineffective fence?' he asked. Former National Audit Office chief Amyas Morse has now been asked by Lord Speaker John McFall to find out what has gone wrong. Robathan added: 'Somebody accountable should be identified and should perhaps resign for this terrible waste of public money.' I doubt anyone will. Gnome alone TV personality Gyles Brandreth brushes off claims that the presence of garden gnomes outside a home can knock up to £12,000 off the value of a neighbour's property, telling ITV's This Morning: 'My garden is awash with gnomes – we probably do upset the neighbours.' Perhaps they deter burglars? The history man Historian Andrew Roberts complained in the House of Lords this week: 'The adjective 'historic' is bandied about far too often in politics, covering all sorts of things that are unlikely to detain historians of the future. Football matches, TV shows and any number of announcements in the other place [the Commons] are routinely described as historic when they simply are not. The other day I saw a hamburger described as historic.' Lennon's last call Julia Baird has been looking back on her last ever telephone conversation with her New York-based brother John Lennon on Nov 17, just weeks before his murder in 1980. 'It was nanny's birthday. I'd gone to see her and John phoned. He said, ''I'm looking forward to seeing you all at last.' Nanny had a big house [called Ardmore on the Wirral] and he said, 'It's going to have to be in Ardmore to get you all in at once!'' Julia movingly adds: 'I said, 'We're all waiting, John.'' Lennon was shot in the Big Apple on December 8. Dance legend Debbie Moore, the founder of the Pineapple Dance Studio in central London, is being celebrated with a plaque in Covent Garden where she set up her studios in a derelict pineapple warehouse in 1978. Freddie Mercury was one of the first members and used 'a Coca-Cola bottle for his microphone', she told me. Dancer Wayne Sleep, who lived at the end of the road, will be coming to the unveiling on Thursday. Moore organised a petition of dancers to keep the studio open at one point. She only took up dancing after her Indian guru told her it was 'the quickest way to lose weight'. 'They call me the accidental dancer. I was so inspired by how hard dancers worked,' she says. Moore's the merrier. OJ Chris A celebrity gossip website asked this week: 'Which politician was fined and suspended by the Oxford Union when they were at university in the 1990s – for secretly and illicitly recording a speech by O J Simpson and flogging it to the tabloids?' Step forward shadow home secretary Chris Philp. Philp tells me: 'This was an ingenious way to help make ends meet as an ordinary, struggling south London lad. It was outrageous that OJ was trying to avoid scrutiny by banning the press.' Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope. You can reach him at peterborough@