North Devon Council (NDC) in Barnstaple, North Devon, South West England are likely the most corrupt, negligent, useless and rude Local Authority in the UK. Let me illustrate this with just one example, highly dangerous radon gas compliance in rented properties.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, carcinogenic (cancer causing) natural gas that afflicts SW England; it is why so many tin miners died of lung cancer and why SW England has a proportionately high number of lung cancer patients. Trust me, lung cancer is one of the worse ways to die.
PHE (Public Health England) state that Local Authorities such as North Devon Council, as per their obligations under the Housing Act 2004 and HHSRS (housing health and safety rating system), MUST ensure compliance with HHSRS by local private landlords / rental agents. Radon testing is meant to be conducted at the outset of a tenancy, not months or years after. In 2018, when asked about this, NDC's housing officer Richard Squire and environmental officer Andrew Millie both stated that NDC had no radon affected areas within their council boundaries, so they had no need to act!
OMG or what? Just go onto Google and search for "UK Radon Map" and you will find PHE's / The Radon Authority's map of radon affected areas in the UK, and North Devon has one of the most dangerous affected areas in the UK! But NDC's environment and housing officers did not even know this, and so never once ensured radon compliance for the safety of local tenants with their landlords / agents.
Radon, the next asbestos scandal in North Devon?
Radon gas is given off by the Uranium rich rocks in SW England. It comes up in "bubbles" and seeps into homes, especially pre-1988 builds which may not has radon / methane gas impermeable membranes (damp courses). Radon has a half life of 3 days; it "decays" by giving off an alpha particle (cancer causing radiation) and then becomes polonium (not good, remember Alexander Litvinenko?). When polonium decays, it become Mercury (not good to say the least for your body, especially your organs, especially so for pregnant women). So you really do not want to breath Radon in!
Yes, Radon is present in the outside air, and varies between 2–15 Bq/m3 (Becquerels per cubic metre); the average outdoors level for the UK is 4 Bq/m3. It is recommended by PHE that radon levels inside a domestic property (your home) do not go above 100 Bq/m3, and that levels above 200 Bq/m3 are considered a HHSRS Category One Hazard which landlords, agents and Local Authorities are legally obliged to act upon (ensure remedial measures such as so called "radon sump pumps" under afflicted properties are installed).
But NDC have not complied with the law, because these heartless imbeciles did not even acknowledge there were "some" radon risk areas in North Devon until October 2018; PHE state that ALL of North Devon is considered a radon risk area. But even when a PHE FOI (Freedom of Information) response was sent to NDC making the facts and their legal obligations clear, they still did not ensure compliance by private landlords / agents. In fact, NDC has its own council tenants and NDC have not even investigated / measured radon in these!
Criminal reckless negligence or what? If you are a North Devon tenant and your property has not been tested for radon levels, demand that your landlord / agent does this now. If the measurement is above 200 Bq/m3, you have likely been breathing in hazardous levels of radon and you may well have a criminal and / or civil case against your landlord / agent and / or NDC (the later for not ensuring HHSRS radon compliance in rental properties).
My advice? File a criminal complaint for reckless negligence and / or wilful neglect of duty of care and / or endangerment to life (children under 2 years should receive extra protection). Sue NDC and your landlord / agent and demand NDC's environment and housing officers are disciplined to the maximum extent allowed.
Surely, North Devon Council in Barnstaple, Devon are the worse Local Authority in the UK, let alone the South West of England.
