Google Earth have a new photograph of our Cinderhill Tar Pit taken last year. The site is now almost invisible and willows and grass have given it a green canopy.
I am pleased to say that the independent report on what we aim to achieve and what has so far happened to the tar pit is being finalised as I write this at the end of February 2020. The unofficial tip being that the tar is breaking up and the carcinogens have left the areas where the roots of the willows have reached.
In a few years this should be a safe and biodiverse area.
Great Crested newts are already on site, as are deer, badgers, foxes, frogs and much else.
2017
There is though much to do on the whole 23 acre site which we hop[e to get underway soon.
We are though now prepared for what lies across the whole site and a better understanding of the needs of the willows, the complexities of the acid tars that make up the problem contaminants and the correct methods to bring the solution and target together.
2020
Around the Belper area there are several more sites where acid tars have been deposited in the 1960s and 70s which we hope might be made available to us to decontaminate in the future.