"Build houses"? What is that? Wait a minute, oh yes, I do remember I think. There was a fabled time when houses did use to be built. But everyone was, so the story goes, laid off even when the foundations had been finished and loads of money spent, as there was nobody left to buy any houses they might finish. The sites stand silent all over Bradford. But I'm sure that if you could find a new building site that in addition needed millions spending on decontamination, that would make someone choosing THAT as the place, of all places, to start building houses much more likely. Not!

Indeed.

Is that fact or an urban myth? Obviously it depends on what was dumped there is the past but are we talking >100 years ago? The main problem with brownfield sites tends to be from gases generated, I'm not sure this would still be an issue.

That's cos you can't afford to park in't back field with us toffs

Oh come on TT! you know where all the Hot Air from the Council is disposed to! The underground GeoThermal effect it has on Odsal is well known through its distinct Micro Cimate!

Maybe not housing , but its location near to the M606/62 could make it prime development land for large industrial storage or warehousing and distribution , which may not be bound by the same issues regarding contamination which house building does ?

Wonder if BPA are part of the big plan to move to the stadium,Blackburn has a building company and that would free up Horsfall.Along with the regen of Richard Dunn site this would all fit a multi-purpose Odsal Stadium and enable council support.Whimsical,I guess..but hey guys..it's open season at the mo.

FA is correct TT, it's a genuine problem. Remember, the site was a council tip during the early part of the 20th century and, as was the custom back then, there were no regulations as to what could, or couldn't, be tipped; it all went in without checks, so basically no-one knows what's in there - just that unspecific "chemicals" were involved. You may remember that the old superdome plan was going to clean up the site, but obviously never got started.

I suggest you look on Google maps or something to see just how much acreage there is down the side of the M62. Much of it with direct access to the M606. Unlike Odsal, the only access to which is via the residential and narrow Stadium Road.

Prologis Park at the top of the M606 is already a work in progress and has over 12 acres available, deliverable in 24 weeks, if anybody wants some. The Euroway, Low Moor Trading Estate and others have plenty of ready built units already standing. And that's all just within a spit.

If I recall there was a specific element wherein the EU was going to pay for the decontamination work.

I have a vague memory of going to the that tip in the early 70s. The driver of the lorry we were in told me to watch the lorry in front. As it moved the ground sank under the wheels and then sprung back up as if it was a bed of foam rubber or something. Similarly we were moving as if we were on a huge mattress.

Are you sure you weren't accidentally driving over Solomona taking a post-prandial nap?

Stuart Duffy told me that the contamination was part of the reason the Coral Stand is effectively built on stilts (and not in case of flooding!). Apparently various surveys and feasibility studies done over the years for various ill fated developments (lots of them) picked up all sorts of nasties in the ground.

There are gas vents in the land behind the fence behind the coral stand.