Mother-of-two asks how developers can guarantee no harm from contaminated site

MOTHER-OF-TWO Gillian de Felice has lived in her house close to the site at Murieston since it was built in 2003.

But she is worried the safe, green neighbourhood is now under threat because of the plans to build new homes on contaminated land.

She said: "We will have to keep our windows and doors shut, but I don't see how they can guarantee we won't be affected by it at all.

"The land is contaminated with various things, some of which are known to be cancer-causing.

"The developers have said there will be wheel washing facilities at the top of Tarbert Drive but how are they going to guarantee that water will not end up in people's gardens or driveways."

Ms de Felice, who has two sons aged 12 and 15, said many people in the area were worried about the health threat.

"The majority of the houses here are family homes, that's why people move to this area - there are nice parks for kids and so on.

"The land where my house is built was contaminated too but before they built it they cleared all the soil. Betts, who built our houses, offered to buy that site but the landowner said no - he wanted more money.

"If that land had been cleared at the same time we wouldn't be in this position, now it's a little island of contaminated land surrounded mostly by houses."