Vicar joins Michael Sheen BBC toxic waste investigation
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- Rev Paul Cawthorne, priest in charge of churches in Hadnall and a long-time environmental campaigner, played a key role in "Buried with Michael Sheen," a two-part BBC documentary investigating historical toxic waste sites in Wales and the borders
- Cawthorne identified multiple sites including Stoney Hill in Telford, Sutton Walls in Herefordshire, and Cefn Mawr in north Wales, after uncovering that Monsanto legally dumped chemical waste at Stoney Hill between 1985-1988
- Cawthorne said "dangerously elevated levels" of polychlorinated biphenyls were found in nine out of 10 sites discussed in the accompanying BBC radio series, with results at some sites "literally off the scale"
- Monsanto's involvement at Stoney Hill, then managed by Shropshire County Council, was revealed through a recent Freedom of Information request
- Cawthorne has called on Telford and Wrekin Council to order a full fresh statutory investigation into the former Stoney Hill landfill near Coalbrookdale
- Telford and Wrekin Council, which took over the site in 1998, said there is "no evidence" toxic materials were tipped there and cited a 2008 Environment Agency assessment concluding the site is not a harm to the local environment
- "Buried with Michael Sheen" premieres on BBC Two, BBC One Wales, and BBC iPlayer from Monday 17 August
Why it matters: Cawthorne's claim that PCB contamination is "off the scale" at nine of ten tested sites directly contradicts Telford and Wrekin Council's insistence that the Stoney Hill landfill poses no environmental harm — a standoff that the high-profile BBC airing on August 17 could drag into wider public view and force the council's 2008 assessment to be re-examined.
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