Gas company, Transco plc, must upgrade a toxic-waste barrier planned for a Warrington field following a High Court ruling in London.
In 1999 Transco launched plans to lay a gas pipeline between Mawdesley and Warrington, part of which was to pass within land owned by the claimants. Extensive areas of the claimants’ land have been used for depositing toxic waste.
In return for land easements to enable it to carry out the work, Transco agreed to erect an impervious barrier around the pipe.
However, Deputy Judge Anthony Mann QC has now ruled that Transcos proposals for the barrier were “inadequate”.
He said that the barrier planned by Transco would not be deep enough to form a continuous boundary, and in order to meet the requirements of a European Directive, it would have to go down as far as the waste.
Transco will have to draw up new and more comprehensive proposals for the barrier to keep it in line with European requirements.
The judge added that although the necessary works were both extensive and expensive, Transco could not escape its liabilities by arguing that it had not been aware of what would be required at the time it drafted the agreement.
Gould and others v BG Transco Ltd Chancery Division (Mr Anthony Mann QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the division) 10 August 2001.
Anthony Rumbelow QC and David di Mambro (instructed by Farrer & Co) appeared for the claimants; John Hand QC and Jeffrey Terry (instructed by Osborne Clarke, of Bristol) appeared for the defendant.
PLS News 14/8/01
