£4 million Compensation for Children in Toxic Waste Birth Injury Claim

Corby residents see end to more than a decade of legal battles

The families of children exposed to toxic waste from the former Corby steelworks site in Northamptonshire have been awarded around £4 million in compensation after an agreement was reached last week with the local council.

The agreement marks the final chapter in a legal battle that has been going on for 11 years between parents of the children, who had suffered from a range of physical deformities linked to their exposure to toxic chemicals from the site of the former steelworks.

The injury claims case, which I have already commented on in the past on the Camps blog, involved 19 children who lived with their families either on a new housing development built on the site of the Corby steelworks, or nearby. After the steelworks was closed in the 1980’s, the local council was left in charge of a clean-up operation to remove the toxic chemicals that had leached into the soils on the site during its 50-year operational history. Much of the waste recovered from the site was transferred to a quarry location some distance to the north where it was supposed to be securely stored.

Compensation claim settlement in region of £3 – £4 million

However shortly after the end of the clean-up operation, babies born in the local area began to show physical deformities, such as missing fingers, or having webbed hands and feet. Parents of these children became concerned that there appeared to be an unusually high number of children being born with similar defects in the Corby borough – something that was confirmed as being statistically significant by a High Court ruling made by Mr Justice Akenhead last July. Initially the council had planned to appeal this ruling, until last week’s announcement that it would be settling the case with the families in a private settlement thought to be in the region of £3 – £4 million.

Making a claim against a local authority

Local authorities, town, borough and county councils are responsible for providing the majority of public services that people encounter in their daily lives. However, as well as providing valuable public services, they also owe a duty of care to ensure that people can use the services they provide without being injured, and also that their actions do not pose a risk to the general public. Clearly in the case of the Corby Steelworks de-contamination, the negligent actions of the council had exposed a large number of people to toxic chemicals, including pregnant mothers whose unborn babies suffered injuries as a result.