Steelworks families win birth-defect battle

Published on Wednesday 29 July 2009 22:06

FAMILIES who claimed their children's birth defects were caused by exposure to toxic chemicals at a former steelworks have won a landmark ruling against their local council.

Mr Justice Akenhead's decision clears the way for the 16 claimants, aged between 11 and 22, to prove their particular disabilities were caused by Corby Borough Council's failings – with compensation to follow if they succeed.

The council had denied it was negligent during the works at the former British Steel plant between 1984 and 1999. It also denied there was a link between toxic chemicals used to clean up the site and children born with deformed hands and feet. But the judge, who said the council's approach was to "dig and dump", found the authority liable.

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Among those victorious yesterday were George Taylor, 17, who has a deformed hand. His parents lived in Corby in the 1980s, but have since moved to Pitmedden, Aberdeenshire.

Last night, his mother Fiona said her son was pleased with the ruling. "It's absolutely brilliant – it's hard to put what we're feeling into words. We've been waiting for this moment for 11 years and we'd convinced ourselves we weren't going to win.

"Each child will be looked at individually for compensation claims but the money wasn't the main thing for us. We always said we wouldn't say no to the money but it's not going to give George his hand back."

The judge accepted the evidence of waste management expert Roger Braithwaite, who said that more than 15 years of poorly regulated "muck-shifting" polluted the environment.

In his 919-paragraph judgment, he said the council "bit off more than it could chew and did not appreciate the enormity, ramifications and difficulty of what it was setting out to achieve in terms of removing and depositing very substantial quantities of contaminated material".

The Corby site was one of the largest steelworks in western Europe, covering 680 acres. It had four blast furnaces and two coke oven complexes.

David Wilby, QC, who represented the families, said that legally the ruling was "extremely important". "It is the first time in the world that it has been established that airborne pollution can cause birth defects of this type," he said.

Cameron Fyfe, a partner at Ross Harper solicitors, told The Scotsman he thought the ruling could pave the way for similar attempts at compensation in Scotland. "If a group of people all feel they have been affected by the same thing and they think it's environmental, then in light of this it's certainly worth exploring."

Lawyers said it was unlikely the compensation claim of even the least disabled child would be less than 100,000, with others being for considerably more.

Corby council chief executive Chris Mallender said: "We need time to reflect on this. We're not saying that we will appeal, we will not say that we will not accept the judgment.

"But we are not just acting on behalf of the children, we're acting on behalf of all of the taxpayers in Corby.

"We are not yet at the point of saying sorry because nobody yet is responsible. We can't go round apologising to people for things which we are not necessarily responsible for."

However, some of the mothers of the children involved, said all they wanted was an apology from the council.

The group's solicitor said he thought it was "appalling" the council would not admit it was in the wrong.

TOWN IN MIDDLE OF ENGLAND WITH 10,000 BORN IN SCOTLAND

DESPITE its location near Kettering in central England, visitors to Corby will find it distinctly Scottish.

The Corby accent, referred to as "Corbyite", sounds Glaswegian. Many Scots migrated there for the steel trade and the link with Scotland is a strong feature of the area.

According to the 2001 census, almost a fifth of people in the Corby area were born in Scotland – more than 10,000 people. It has been estimated that a further third of the population are of Scottish descent.

There are Scottish social and sports clubs and many fervent supporters of Rangers and Celtic football clubs. Corby is home to the largest Rangers supporters' club outside Glasgow and Northern Ireland.

Shops sell Scottish food and a supermarket even introduced Gaelic signs at one point.

An annual Highland Gathering featuring traditional Scottish music and dancing is held in the town. Corby is the only town in England apart from London with two Church of Scotland kirks.

The area around the town, north of Kettering in Northamptonshire, has been worked for iron ore since Roman times. An ironstone industry developed in the 19th century with the arrival of railways.

In 1934, the owners of the ironstone works, the steel firm Stewarts & Lloyds, decided to build a large integrated ironstone and steel works in the town. It drew workers from all over the country, many from the west of Scotland.

By 1939 the population had grown from 1,500 to about 12,000, and by 1950 to 18,000. In that year Corby was designated a new town and the town underwent its second wave of expansion, mainly from Scotland.

However, following nationalisation of the steel industry, production was phased out, and in November 1979, the end of iron and steel making in Corby was formally announced.

By the end of 1981 more than 5,000 jobs had been lost from British Steel in Corby, and further cuts took the total loss to 11,000 jobs, leading to an unemployment rate of more than 30 per cent.

In recent years, however, new industry has returned the town's joblessness rate to the national average.