Anthrax testing carried out in a keynsham garden

BORE holes have been drilled into the ground in Keynsham at a site where it is believed animal carcasses infected with anthrax were buried at the end of the First World War.

Men wearing white biological hazard overalls have taken samples of earth from the garden of a house in Park Road and from a nearby field.

Developer Wimpey Taylor was ordered to carry out the testing to check if there were any traces of animal carcasses in the land before Bath and North East Somerset Council considers a planning application by the firm to build 285 homes on the site known as K2

The testing method had to be written out and approved by the council before work could start.

People living closest to the test site in  Park Road were sent a letter about the testing and how it was to be carried out.

Many residents do object to the plan to build new homes and an action group called KRAK2 was launched last month to fight the application.

One resident in Park Rod said: "The whole building project worries me, mainly because Park Road is the sole access.

"It is a very narrow road and I have difficulty getting my car out as it is. With all the new houses there the weight of traffic will be enormous."

Retired British Rail manager Terence Manley, 75, lives close to the test site but did not receive a letter warning him that work would be carried out.

He said: "It illustrates the contempt that the council has for local residents. Requests have been made under the Freedom of Information Act for correspondence by the highways officer who approved Park Road as the access in the first place and the council has refused to give it.

"I have been opposed to this development right from the start. I don't begrudge houses but the access is impossible."

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the soil-borne spores which have a long lifetime and have been known to have infected animals more than 70 years after burial sites of anthrax-infected animals were disturbed.