Father Claims Southall Green Quarter is Toxic
Believes odours coming from construction site are affecting family's health
Ashot Baljyan said life has been hard over the last few years with his family's health
A father has shared the plight of his family living in Southall through lockdown claiming they are suffering from a noxious odour coming from the former gasworks site, which he believes is damaging their health.
Ashot Baljyan told the Local Democracy Reporting Service what it’s been like living up to 400m away from the 88-acre site, now named the Southall Green Quarter.
The impact of the construction of Southall Green Quarter, previously known as Southall Waterside, on the surrounding community has long been a contentious issue, with residents and campaigners claiming strong odours coming from the site are affecting their health.
Numerous public meetings have been raised to address concerns of the development, residents and campaign group Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH), claim toxic chemicals from the site pollute the air which has left people with breathing difficulties, vomiting, and even cancers.
Speaking in February, Ashot told of his vomiting, his wife’s regular headaches and his mother, who lives on the same street, who in January became so dizzy she had a fall and was taken to hospital.
Ashot's mother, Shushik Baljyan, shows the mark where she hit her head from her fall
The father-of-two also described his daughter suffering with breathing difficulties, for which she has been rushed to hospital several times.
The family usually rents out an oxygen tank to help the eight-year-old which Ashot describes as a “diamond”, but since he suffered a heart attack, the coach driver has been out of work and been unable to pay for the machine he rents monthly.
To buy the equipment, Ashot said it would cost £35,000.
The 45-year-old said, “Everybody’s not working, sitting at home, life is getting harder every day…
“My wife is having to look after me, my mum, my daughter, I don’t wish this problem on Southall.”
He said during lockdown when the construction work temporarily stopped the odour was not so bad. But in the summer nights he would wake up to close the windows to stop the smell coming into the house.
He described the strong smell as: “When you go to a petrol station and put petrol in your car, sometimes you start feeling dizzy.”
He said that no-one is happy with the smell but added: “A lot of people [are] not complaining because a lot of people don’t even speak English…And there is worry for house prices going to go down if you call the staff to complain…
“I understand health is more important than money because if health goes you have to work to pay to fix the problem.”
The family no longer take the children to a park near to the Southall Green Quarter site as they come back “feeling ill”, or “dizzy” and recordings Ashot has filmed to document his daughter’s condition, he said would make you cry.
Ashot also said he has borrowed money from friends and his brother to pay for expensive treatments and appointments with homeopathic doctors trying every avenue to improve his daughter’s health.
“Our life in the last two years is very bad,” he said.
“My English is not good enough to tell you how I’m feeling. I can’t say everything I’m thinking very hard for me to talk.
“I don’t want other children to have the same problem like my daughter, I don’t want other mothers to have the same problem as my mother has.”
While Ashot feels the development is “damaging people’s lives,” he questions: “What am I going to do? I’m not powerful, this is a very powerful company.”
Developer Berkeley Group says its plans are one of the most ambitious in the UK to transform the brownfield site, to build 3,750 new homes, 13 acres of parklands, space for new schools, shops and restaurants.
Chemicals such as benzene, naphthalene and 4-isopropyltoluene were found in the soil before the development started, and work was completed to treat the ground by March 2019.
In multiple reports by Public Health England, officials have detailed that it is unlikely there is a direct toxicological risk to the long-term health of neighbours to the site.
Within the community however, one of Southall’s youngest campaigners has said he will never give up on his hometown to get justice over the former gasworks site.
Sufiyan Abdul-Qayum, 19, has made it his life’s mission to make a difference in his community, and joined campaign group Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) in 2018 to fight against the Southall Green Quarter development.
Sufiyan Abdul-Qayum is a "born and bred Southall boy" who wants to help the community
It was when Sufiyan spoke at one meeting in the Dominion Centre, as a school child that he decided to commit to the cause, and speak up about issues.
“When I spoke at that meeting, I had no self-confidence. I was the guy that sat at the back,” he said.
“I have got a lot of confidence from public speaking first with CASH, the reason why I have spoken out many times in meetings is because you know Southall is my home it’s going to be my home for the future, but if I’m going to be priced out of my area, I’m not going without a fight.”
Another reason that really touched Sufiyan to join CASH was when a member of the group’s mum died of cancer, which he questions as a “coincidence”, that she had experienced no health problems before the development work began.
Sufiyan, who works in commercial banking, grew up with his grandparents who live half a mile from the Southall Green Quarter site.
Over the summer months of lockdown he recalled sitting in the garden smelling “petrol in the air”, and Sufiyan worries his grandfather developing respiratory problems could be linked to pollution “from what can only be the biggest development in London”.
He believes the exposure of chemicals in a majority ethnic minority population area is “discrimination”. Southall is one of the most deprived areas in Ealing according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. In a three-month study commissioned by CASH into the impact of the development last year, it suggested the impact of poverty on health is “incredibly significant”.
Southall MP Virendra Sharma also shared his frustration with residents in a public meeting in January, saying: “Residents were promised when remediation finished there would be no smell, yet the smell continues.
“It is not safe, and it is a nuisance.”
As the youngest member of CASH, Sufiyan’s aware there are not many other young people who speak up on issues in the community.
He said, “When I got involved, I told pretty much all my mates, I said to them ‘look join it and get our voices heard, I don’t want our loved ones to die’.
“They said nothing’s going to come of this.”
While Sufiyan accepts the development will not be stopped, he hopes through speaking out he can hold developers Berkeley Group accountable to ensure all measures are in place to protect the community, and to challenge the council he believes “remains silent” on the concerns.
One issue being flagged for example is the commitment of Ealing Council to introduce independent air quality monitoring of the site to be put in place for August 2020.
Six months later in February 2021, the council said it was in negotiations with a contractor to carry out the work.
“Southall to me will never be a lost cause,” he said.
“The reason being my family is here, my childhood is in Southall that is where everything started for me.
“I know I will never give up on Southall. Even if it takes 10 years to fight this…we will definitely fight until we get justice.”
Artist's impression of Southall Green development. Picture: Berkeley Homes
CASH is organising a public meeting on April 20, Southall Matters: Why aren’t our voices being heard, to take place virtually to discuss a range of concerns in the district such as air pollution, overdevelopment, planning, and MPs and councillors.
Ealing Council and Berkeley Group were contacted for comment.
To find out more click here.
Anyone experiencing problems at Southall Waterside can call the council on 020 8825 8111.
Anahita Hossein-Pour - Local Democracy Reporter
March 25, 2021