Amid dust complaints, contractor says authorities barred it from using water.
“Neighbours compplain about demolition dust” is the headline that screams from the pages of the Crawley and Horley Observer website; and it would be easy to believe that this was just another instance of a demolition contractor riding roughshod over legislation designed to control dust emissions.
But upon closer inspection, it appears there is more to this story than meets the eye. In fact, if the contents of the story are to be believed, it is the local water authority and not the demolition contractor that should be brought to account, having refused to allow Willbea Demolition to use one of its hydrants.
Ian Simmons, owner of Willbea Demolition, said demolition was expected to take around four weeks.
“We are doing everything we can. We have a dust buster which sprays water to around 20 to 30 metres and when we are knocking the concrete down we put it on,” says Ian Simmons, owner of Wilbea Demolition. “We have asked the water board to use their hydrant, which the fire service use, for dusting down and enables us to control the dust a lot easier but they won’t let us. It would mean we could get more water pressure and we could use a cherry picker to get above the building and fire water at it creating less dust.”
Crawley Borough Council confirmed it had received complaints about the dust from the demolition of Fairfield House. A council spokesperson said: “Demolition work is dusty work and the council believes the site manager is taking reasonable steps to minimise dust, for example using water sprays. However, Southern Water has prevented him from using high pressure water from its hydrant that would reach the top of the building because it would affect water distribution elsewhere in Crawley.”
Southern Water said it generally would not refuse a company the use of water from the distribution network but there may have been an operational reason for the decision. A Southern Water spokesperson said: “In this case, however, there may have been an operational reason to refuse permission, for example, the risk of a sudden decrease of water pressure to customers in the surrounding area.”
We’re not sure what amazes us about this story the most: A local authority coming out in support of a demolition contractor or the fact that dust was an issue despite this being the wettest British summer since records began.
Read more here.
