Chuckey Village Green is a popular place for kids to play. Imagery from Bing! Maps.
I think everyone who reads this blog knows well and understands my utter contempt for flytipping and the scumbags that do it. Such crime is not only offensive, it costs local authorities a huge amount to clean up, and shows utter disrespect for both the environment we share, and the communities in which we live.
Today, a story comes to me from a good friend in Chuckery, Walsall. I know that’s off my usual patch, but she has specifically asked me to cover this, and I can see why.
Just when you think society’s scum couldn’t get any lower, they confound even your very lowest expectations.
On Sunday afternoon (2nd June 2013), at about 5:30pm, my friend was walking down Walhouse Road, near the bus stop on the junction with Charlotte Street, just by the open patch of land there locally regarded as the village green.
This is what she found – ten 25 litre Hydrochloric acid drums, dumped on the green, a space on which kids play on days like today.
As the lady was taking pictures, a passerby asked what she was doing. After an explanation, he left to phone the authorities.
The drums had gone by 7:45pm, so all credit to whoever removed them. However, it takes a special kind of arsehole to dump containers bearing the residue of strong, caustic liquid on a children’s play area, especially considering the inquisitive nature of young lads in particular. It’s very fortunate that nobody appears to have been burned. Hydrochloric acid at these strengths is nasty stuff.
The reason I run the pictures here, apart from the general alert to a particularly nasty piece of environmental crime, is that the chemical was packaged and sold by a local company, from Highgate, in Birmingham, and bore batch numbers. We’re hoping a passing Environmental Health tech or other expert can use the information to trace who the acid was bought by, and therefore find the idiots who flytipped the drums.
Please, if you know anything about this, saw something, or have any idea where the drums may have come from, please do contact either Walsall Streetpride, or Walsall Police.