Newly released photos have shown the aftermath of the fire at Bellway Homes’ future estate of 259 homes in Hazlemere, where a small amount of hazardous waste was found.

Piles of fly-tipped waste smouldered for weeks on the site just off the A404 Amersham Road from April into May this year, with the smoke from the blaze causing some residents to ‘feel sick’.

Now images released by the Environment Agency (EA) this week show what appears to be scorched earth after investigators entered the site following the fire.

The previously undisclosed photos reveal for the first time the extent of the clear-up operation on the site, a former coachyard, with workers in a digger and a truck shown removing some of the estimated 70 truckloads of waste that were illegally dumped on the land.

A huge pile of debris can be seen in one image, while others show dilapidated structures and shipping containers, near where the fire burned, which will be cleared before Bellway’s new homes are built.

READ MORE: High Wycombe reacts to plans for 181 new apartments

The new images are contained in the appendices of a short report by waste management firm SoilEx, which analysed rubbish at the Hazlemere on behalf of Bellway.

The EA previously released the report under freedom of information laws but chose to keep the 108 pages of appendices hidden from the public.

However, this week it released the documents following an internal review requested by the Bucks Free Press and admitted that its initial decision to withhold them was ‘incorrect’.

In an accompanying statement, the EA explained that the soil samples from the site are ‘likely’ to contain both waste from the fly tip and substances found in the ground from the site’s previous uses, including as a garage for coaches.

It said: “Smoke from burning waste does not necessarily contain each substance present within the waste as each substance will react differently to being burnt.

“It’s important to understand that this report shouldn’t therefore be used to indicate or even estimate whether each of the substances found were contained within the smoke and if so what percentage of each of the substances were contained within the smoke.”

Some pages of the newly released appendices to the report go into slightly greater detail about the small amount of a hazardous substance found in one out of eight of the soil samples from the site.

The substance is part of the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) family of chemicals, which are found in crude oil and which it is not uncommon for people to come into contact with in small quantities in places such as petrol stations.

The description of TPH in the appendices reads: “May cause cancer [state route of exposure if ii is conclusively proven that no other routes of exposure cause the hazard].”

Another risk is listed as: “May cause genetic defects [state route of exposure if it is conclusively proven that no other routes of exposure cause the hazard].”

Bellway’s PR firm said that the discovery of TPH was standard for former industrial premises and that it did not present a risk to residents.

Since the fire, all the burnt waste has been cleared from the site.

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