CONSPIRACY TO CONTAMINATE GROUNDWATER - The shit is about to hit the fan at Herstmonceux, with the building of houses that are sure to contaminate the groundwater where drinking water has been drawn from a local well constructed around C. 1909. This well has been in constant use over the last 35 years by locals and is their only source of water.

The Environment Agency in England is responsible for the prevention of groundwater contamination and flooding. As a local authority, they also have a duty to protect known users of water from threats to peaceful enjoyment of property - and of course the right to life as per Article 2 of the HRA 1998.

This is a Duty as per Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 is to act compatibly with Articles 2 and Article 1 of Protocol 1:

Public authorities

Acts of public authorities.

6. - (1) It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to an act if-

(a) as the result of one or more provisions of primary legislation, the authority could not have acted differently; or 

(b) in the case of one or more provisions of, or made under, primary legislation which cannot be read or given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights, the authority was acting so as to give effect to or enforce those provisions. 

(3) In this section "public authority" includes-

(a) a court or tribunal, and 

(b) any person certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature, 

but does not include either House of Parliament or a person exercising functions in connection with proceedings in Parliament.

When taken in the context of a development that threatens peaceful enjoyment of a water supply, it must then be the duty of the Environment Agency, Wealden District Council and the Secretary of State for Communities, to ensure that the developers: Latimer Developments Ltd., and Clarion Housing Group Ltd., do not carry out any development that threatens to breach the right to peaceful enjoyment.

Within England the responsibilities of the Environment Agency include:

- regulating major industry and waste
- treatment of contaminated land
- water quality and resources
- fisheries
- inland river, estuary and harbour navigations
- conservation and ecology

They are also responsible for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.

Herstmonceux Museum Ltd Vs Latimer Developments Ltd & Clarion Group Ltd 2021

A looming case involving a well and potential water contamination, where the property developers Latimer Developments and Clarion Housing Group Limited purchased land at Herstmonceux in East Sussex, from Timothy Watson (possibly via others) with the intention to build houses on a slope directly feeding ground water to the well that is the only and original source of water to a historic site and the occupants of old generating buildings dating from 1909. Where gardens are planned and garages for cars are included, it is likely that pesticides used ordinarily by gardeners, and or oil spills from motor vehicles (and the like) will eventually soak into the groundwater such as to contaminate the water that is used for drinking and washing, etc. Whereas, the state must protect the occupants of the building from a real or potential threat of contamination such as to avoid threatening the continued use of such amenity, but that neither the developer, nor the Wealden District Council, took care to avoid an exclusion zone typically 100 one hundred meters upstream of Lime Well, contrary to Protocol 1, Article 1, the right to peaceful enjoyment of property and the right to life, as guaranteed by Article 2 of the HRA 1998.

PLANNING & CONSERVATION

In the context of the development at Lime Cross, including the sewage pumping station adjacent to Chapel Row and the proposed soil pipes from around 70 houses that would feed into the pumping station, collectively known locally as Shit Creek, there is also the matter of groundwater contamination that poses a very real potential threat to the well in use in the adjacent grounds adjoining Lime Park.

The Environment Agency have been alerted to the impending contamination, but have not yet suggested any action to prevent such contamination, except to suggest that 50 meter and 100 meter radiuses from the historic well would give the developers some measure of safety in terms of the likely contamination from the houses that they propose building. 

These protected areas are called Source Protection Zones, or SPZs.

In some areas of Southern England, groundwater supplies up to 80% of the drinking water that we get through our taps. It is therefore crucial that the Environment Agency (EA) look after these sources and ensure that our water is completely safe to drink.

As far as we know, the Environment Agency has not written to the developers to point this out, let alone suggesting that the occupiers and owners of the proposed houses should be made aware of the risks involved, along with the insurers of the houses in terms of claims for damages, from the loss of supply, cleaning up costs, and temporary supply measures pending continuation of supply from the historic well.

Where a bond against claims was requested by objectors, no such instrument materialized. Some might call that serious negligence, others criminal negligence - but nothing surprises us concerning Wealden District Council, after they unlawfully bulldozed a much needed horse sanctuary at Bushy Wood - and failed to protect a tenant farmer from her landlord's harassments, allowing the landlord to set fires close to the farmer's font door, and took the roof off the building while still occupied.

2, 4, 6, 8 DEFECATE - ....

ARE THEY SURE? - Southern Water say these are essential improvements. But are they? Many concerned residents are of the opinion that the village was already overloaded. Meaning that these works are more profiteering from over-development of the countryside. It's hot enough already without raising the temperature of planet earth more!

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