Public safety or £ signs

COMMENT
28/1/05

So the great news is that work has finally commenced on stabilizing
Northwich's abandoned salt mines.

It's taken seventeen years to get to the starting line and 2008
is the best date guess for completion. It's certainly been a long haul
and Rob Pearson, of the Government's English Partnerships agency,
summed up the official launch of the project as a 'symbolic occasion'.

How right he was, but symbolic only for the confusion and political
double talk that has plagued the venture since as long ago as 1987.
The truth is no-one in authority has ever been able to square publicly
whether the abandoned mines principally present a serious safety issue
or a regeneration opportunity. Indeed, not even the leading speakers at
the official launch could fully agree.

Naturally when Government is committed to spend in excess of £30
million, civil servant Rob Pearson wished to talk only of
regeneration‚ and a vision‚ for Northwich. On the other hand, Mike
Hall, the local MP, let the cat out of the bag when he recalled his
early days in office, in 1997, and a meeting with Bill Woods, the then
chief executive of Vale Royal Council, who told him that Northwich town
centre was in danger of disappearing down a cavity.

This, ten years after an early warning about the state of the mines,
was the chief executive rather gilding the lily. The town centre has,
in fact, never been in danger of collapse, though the myth persists to
this day and the BBC TV reporter filmed promenading down Witton Street
on the day of the launch, claiming mines beneath his feet, was talking
hogwash.

Only certain areas around the periphery of the town centre are liable
to collapse. The principal area of former mining activity, but the
least likely to subside in the foreseeable future, is beneath Barons
Quay, near to the river, and one day, under the current proposals, this
may become the town centre, but it isn't yet and it certainly wasn't
when Bill Woods told Mike Hall of his concerns.

No matter, it sounded better to suggest to Government that the town
centre might vanish into the bowels of the earth. It was even better to
suggest that, with Government funding, all sorts of development
potential could be realised.

Government, councils and politicians worship £ signs and, suddenly,
from a standpoint of abject disinterest in the problem, English
Partnerships cranked into gear... and did the £ signs begin to roll.
From an initial estimate of £5 million the bill soared and they are now
talking £33 million. Good business if you can get it!

The trouble was, Vale Royal Council, with Mike Hall's support, had to
perform a difficult balancing act. On the one hand they needed to paint
the bleakest picture to secure Government funding and initial 'secret'
reports highlighed a critical threat to buildings and the infrastructure
of the town. At the same time, townsfolk were being told that there
wasn't a cat in hell's chance of a collapse and that anyone who
suggested otherwise was guilty of scaremongering. Talk about buttering
your bread on both sides!

In the midst of this morass of intrigue, geological and engineering
surveys revealed that the mine in the most serious danger was the
Witton Bank Mine in which the supporting pillars were buckling under
the strain and possible collapse was said to be imminent.

Obviously Vale Royal Council would have preferred to keep this information out of
the public domain, but when it became known, Mr Woods was adamant that
the Witton Bank Mine would be tackled as a priority because it was a
public safety issue.

An admirable and sensible response. However, public safety does not
generate £ signs and the development potential above the Witton Bank
Mine, to say the least, remains limited. The jewel in the crown is, and
always has been, the land above the 26-acre Barons Quay Mine.
So what do we get amidst the rejoicing and bottom-kissing of the
official launch?

Work starts on window-dressing‚ Neumann's Mine and
Penny's Lane Mine, the smallest and easiest in which to test the
filling operation. Then follows the massive Barons Quay operation, and
finally, last of all, they intend to stabilize the Witton Bank Mine,
the one whose collapse was said years ago to be 'imminent'.

Proof positive, indeed, that public safety has never been more than a
convenient vehicle upon which to hitch the £ signs in this long-running
saga. One strongly suspects that without the development potential of
Barons Quay there would be a 'leave well alone' attitude towards the
abandoned Northwich mines.

No-one would have given a damn about
Neumann's, Penny's Lane or Witton Bank.

As it is, only time will tell whether the salt and brine deposits
upon which Northwich was built can ever be fully harnessed and
conquered.

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