Bomb alert building site in Burntwood is declared safe
A building site where two bombs were discovered has been declared safe by developers who have carried out a thorough investigation of the land.
Discoveries of an grenade and then an undetonated mortar three weeks later at the former munitions store off Milestone Way saw bomb disposal experts from the Ministry of Defence descend on the scene and carry out controlled explosions in February and March.
Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Homes, which are constructing 351 homes on the plot, brought development to a halt and immediately launched a sweep of the area, which was once home to ES Smith, a firm that stored war debris in the 1940s and 1950s.
The probe, which started in early April and was scheduled for no longer than a fortnight, was severely delayed by heavy rain, but today the builders confirmed that the site was now safe.
The company said some areas of the land, which is near a Morrison's supermarket, were still inaccessible and further investigation works would need to be carried out at a later dater.
A spokesman for Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Homes said: "We are pleased to confirm that an investigation has now been completed in all accessible areas of the development site, which have been declared safe after no further ordnance was discovered.
"The only ground which has yet to be investigated is currently covered by large spoil piles, which makes it inaccessible for the time being.
"These areas will be investigated at a later date.
"Groundworks have now resumed elsewhere on the site, while construction works have remained unaffected throughout the process."
Burntwood Town councillor Darren Ennis, who represents Chasetown, said the news did not surprise him.
He said: "It is such a large site, they did an initial sweep and these devices were right on the border – they were missed before.
"But they were not dangerous at all.
"Now they have done another scan and found nothing again.
"It doesn't surprise me. I don't think anything else will come up.
"The residents have been worried about this but there was a lot of scaremongering going on before and people saying things were going to blow up. It wasn't the case.
"If you know your history you know it was a used munitions dump not a live one.
"We used to play on there as kids and dig up bullets.
"At the end of the day if the MoD were concerned they could have shut down the whole site and they haven't."
