Another interesting piece I have stumbled upon comes from 10th April 1958 Birmingham Daily Post- just 9 days after the local concern about the rattlechain waste and its effects on human health.
This concerns the named foreman Ernest Sulley, in charge of all waste disposal at Albright and Wilson’s Trinity Street site. It is indicated in the article that he had been responsible for this for some time- 24 years- ie from 1934.
Sulley had pleaded guilty at Oldbury magistrates to stealing “steel drums” from his employer. He had sold them for scrap to tatters pocketing the cash himself- but this really isn’t what interests me about this article. What interests me is the clear reference to how waste was being disposed of by the company under this mans direct control. Read on…..
“For 34 years Sulley had been yard foreman at the factory, and was responsible for the disposal of steel drums which had contained chemicals. The procedure was for a contractor’s lorry to tip them in a water filled pit, but two years ago Sulley began having them delivered to a scrap dealer. He then collected payment at an average of £1 6s for each load.”
So in this incredible paragraph we get confirmation that Sulley was directly responsible for organising the disposal of Albright and Wilson’s factory waste- and had been for many years. There are other conclusions that can be drawn.
- We learn that a lorry was used to tip the drums into “a water filled pit”- of course this is rattlechain lagoon– and this gives decisive evidence that road haulage was being used as well as by canal transport to dispose of the toxic waste into the drink.
- Sulley came up with a scheme whereby the waste in drums was diverted to a scrap dealer! One has to ask therefore- what the fuck did the tatters do with the toxic waste- and where did they dump it before snatching the barrels?
- This crook, not contented with ripping off Albright and Wilson- (I couldn’t care less about that), was complicit in the disposal of toxic waste into the environment- both at rattlechain and also God knows where else.
- It says much about how Albright and Wilson’s waste control systems were none existent and how as a company they could not have cared less about what they were doing with the waste- and at this time in their history they were doing rather well financially.
- What do we make of Sulley’s involvement in tackling “the Oldbury smell” and that the company had proposed dumping the barrels into the North Sea?
No matter that Kenneth Wilson- (a high ranking magistrate in this part of the world that Sulley could not have chosen a worse boss to rip off) 😀 , Albright and Wilson were as responsible for whatever environmental crimes that this piece of Langley thieving crap committed. The only questions that should have been asked- though of course the Albright and Wilson’s dire waste disposal regime was not in question- was the morality of what they were doing by disposing of this toxic rubbish into an underwater pit. Ernie was just another dodgy cog in a bigger crooked wheel.