The current Occupation and safety issues

Avalon Plastics was built in 1969. Its neighbour was the Glastonbury Rugby Club next to Street Road, now the site of B&Q. The retail site was built during the 1980s and '90s with B&Q and Wollens, etc, as a retail 'buffer' between the expanding town and industrial estate. The Avalon Plastics site was therefore the only industrial site amongst the retail sites. When Avalon Plastics closed and the site was sold, Tesco became the potential remaining retail component of the retail area.
If not for the failure to meet with local and national planning policies, by potentially driving retail traffic through an industrial area and along unsuitable roads, and the failure to provide pedestrian and bicycle access from the retail side (and across the existing Ransom Strip along Wirral Park Road), there may already have been a retail store trading on the site.
To develop the site, there must be an extensive decontamination of the buildings and land, something that has yet to be started. Now, with an occupation of the site in progress, the issue of the state of the old building has been raised. Whilst the condition of the site is little different to many other closed industrial sites, it should be noted that before being suitable for human occupation and use, it MUST be decontaminated.

The potentially hazardous materials present on the site, lead to the following considerations:
- Asbestos - various types used in the roofing and manufacturing.
- 40 years of the processing of materials of the plastics industry, including releasing agents, industrial oils and a wide range of plastic materials and fillers.
- The flooring of the main building is unsealed and so will be contaminated with a combination of the above materials.
- The buildings, including the offices, are unfit for human habitation due to types of dust, vapours, and other forms of contamination, from the main building.
- The site is filthy and cannot be cleaned properly due to no electricity or proper cleaning equipment. This means that what cleaning has been done was by brush and/or domestic equipment which are clearly inadequate for the job.

The proposals for a 'community centre' and/or 'gallery' in the buildings, a vegetable and local produce market, and the creation of a pizza oven (for 'donation') before the site is decontaminated have not properly considered the serious risks to health presented by the site, especially to people not taking precautions with safety clothing, dust-masks, etc. Preparing food and drinks for consumption on site is clearly unsafe.

On the leaflets that were handed out on the High Street recently was the question: "How have TESCO managed to get permission to retail food on a site only a stone's throw downwind from Street and Glastonbury's sewage works?", yet food and drink is being provided on the site already!
As the Red Brick Building cafe is fully functional and Bride's Yard Shop has been selling foods for many years, both very close to the sewage works, the issue is not the proximity to the sewage works but the industrial residue which will remain on the site until the existing derelict buildings are demolished and the site is professionally cleared and decontaminated.

Whilst the sentiments of the occupation are mostly admirable, due to the serious hazard to participants and visitors, the Tesconbury focus group cannot recommend the occupation at this time and urge caution to anyone thinking of being on the site. We feel that use of the existing derelict buildings for any kind of food and drink preparation is inappropriate and irresponsible, and should cease immediately.

Comments invited...