Thames Valley Police has stopped investigating a potential arson following a fire at a Bellway Homes development of 259 new properties in Hazlemere, Wycombe.

The force said its probe into the blaze, which began on April 25 lasting more than four weeks, has come to an end and is due to be filed unless new information comes to light.

It comes after piles of rubbish caught fire at a former scrapyard and bus depot behind Orchard End Farmhouse on the A404 Amersham Road, where Bellway is building new homes, which it will ‘launch’ this winter.

Residents of Hazlemere suffered nausea and headaches from fumes from the fire, which Bellway has blamed on ‘fly-tippers’.

A company appointed by Bellway began clearing rubbish from the building site on May 24 and has tested for potential contamination there amid residents’ fears that the smouldering waste contains material harmful to human health.

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A spokesperson for Bellway told the Bucks Free Press: “This testing has been undertaken independently and reports on the contents of the waste have been shared with Buckinghamshire Council and the Environment Agency.

“Bellway have been following all expert advice and will continue to allow access to the site to the relevant bodies.”

However, Bellway’s reports have not been shared with Hazlemere Parish Council, which has asked for access to them.

The authority has also requested that the developer hold a public meeting to explain the situation to residents, or failing that, for its representatives to attend a parish council meeting.

In a meeting of the parish council on Tuesday night, Vice Chair Paul Fleming said: “We have asked for update from the Environment Agency and [Buckinghamshire Council’s] environmental health, and we are as much in the dark as anybody else.”

He added: “No one has got access to the report. Bellway commissioned the report, and no doubt will consider the findings commercially sensitive, so that is why they don’t share the findings publicly until the relevant agencies have had the chance to go through it.”

Outside the meeting, local resident Susan Jamson told the Free Press that she and Hazlemere’s 15,000 plus residents want access to the reports.

She said: “That is it. We are not going to stop until we see the reports. They have said that they are going to be technical, and we won’t understand them.

“We will, because we will make sure we get someone who can translate the reports into language that we understand so that we know what was on the fire.”

Susan added that she was ‘really disappointed’ with Thames Valley Police after she and other residents reported the fire to the force.

She said she was told by officers that there was ‘no evidence’, despite Bellway apparently having CCTV footage of lorries coming in and out of the site.

She added: “I don’t know if the police are doing anything. We haven’t heard anything from the Environment Agency. I write to them regularly. They haven’t come back to me.”

A spokesperson for Bellway said: “Following the fire at Amersham Road, Hazlemere, on 25th April, Bellway has been working closely with the relevant authorities to prioritise the safety of local residents.”

They added: “We thank local residents and councillors for their continued cooperation whilst the works take place and hope that any impact will be minimal.”

The Environment Agency is understood to be investigating refuse that was removed from the site.

The Environment Agency, Buckinghamshire Council and Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service have been approached for comment.

Thames Valley Police said that anyone with further information should call 101 or make a report on its website, quoting reference number 43240191367.

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