CONCERNED residents who attended the Muirfield Close meeting were given comprehensive information about environmental health factors and about what steps were being taken to safeguard the health of residents.

These include:

l Housing, environment and health experts will keep residents informed as soon as new information becomes available. But it may be months or years before studies are complete because it is a difficult process which needs to be conducted thoroughly.

l Muir Housing Group Association officials explained that there are numerous housing developments across the country built on landfill sites and with appropriate precautions there are no acknowledged health risks.

l Initial radiation monitoring results carried out on the land by environmental health experts give no cause for alarm and figures are average when compared to other areas of land across the UK. These results will be considered fully by the steering group at its next meeting.

l Soil samples have been taken by Vale Royal officials. These will be used as part of the more detailed investigation and may help to determine the most useful areas for the boreholes, in conjunction with the history of the area and the local knowledge of the residents.

l Other tests will be needed but this will take time because experts will need to decide what substances to look for and exactly where to carry out the investigations.

l There have been no benzene or methane recordings in the living space of any of the properties so far. But traces of a gas, likely to be methane, were found beneath one of the homes when the floorboards were removed and the gas protection membrane in the floor of the house was breached. Environmental health officers said they would expect to find traces of methane beneath the properties.

l Methane is a non-toxic gas that is not likely to cause health problems.

It can occur naturally when plants and trees decompose and can also be found under water in marshes.