Residents today demanded a full study of a controversial waste tip at Odsal after environment chiefs admitted no one knows its contents.

Families living near the tip at Odsal Stadium have been pressing the Council for more information, fearing chemicals and asbestos may be in the dump which closed in the 1980s.

The tip is due to be excavated and undergo remedial work when work starts on the proposed £200 million Superdome.

In the meantime Bradford Council maintains the tip and has installed permanent anti-pollution measures to comply with legislation.

The Environment Agency says the tip is safe in its existing state but strict controls will be necessary when it is excavated because no records were kept of what was dumped there for more than 30 years.

Today, residents' action group member David Warburton, of Rooley Crescent, said: "I am appalled that the Environment Agency has now said officially that no one knows what is in there.

"I accept that the Council has installed safety measures and is following the letter of the law but I think we need to know a lot more about the area. Some of us have always feared this could be a time bomb."

Shadow Environment Secretary Tim Yeo, who took up the fears of the residents with the Environment Agency, said: "I am concerned about the findings. I am writing to Bradford Council asking it to speed up the development and deal with the work on the tip as soon as possible."

An Environment Agency spokesman said that dumping took place at Odsal from 1944 and an Act which insisted that records were kept did not come in until the late 1970s.

But the tip then became a model site run by the West Yorkshire Waste Regulation Authority until it closed in the 1980s.

"I don't think anyone knows what is in there except through people's living memory," said the spokesman.

"We have been in preliminary discussions with consultants but the tip is in the control of Bradford Council and we would only become involved when it was excavated."

"It would have to be done under very tight controls. If there was asbestos, for example, it would have to be moved in secure wagons."

A Bradford Council spokesman said that as the site is earmarked for development, an environment impact survey was commissioned by the authority. He added: "This sets out the work which would have to be done by any potential developer as part of the planning permission."

Copies of the report have now been requested by the residents and will be made available in two weeks' time

Council leader Councillor John Ryan said: "I know that I can't give a 100 per cent assurance that everything is okay.

"We have to be guided by the Environment Agency and I am quite sure if they thought there were dangers they would be immediately on to the Council.

"They are watching progress with the developers, who would pay for the work, very closely. If there is no development I believe they will ask the Council to take some steps. But I think they may well give us time.

"They, like everybody else, believed Superdome could have been a solution which would have satisfied everybody.

"I will try to keep the residents up-to-date and give them accurate and informed information. I have no secrets and nothing to hide."

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe said he hoped the Council would hold meetings with the residents as development plans progressed.

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