ICI at Hillhouse: what it made, where its waste went, and where the two main ICI companies are now

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and the company it absorbed, the United Alkali Company, worked the land at Burn Naze and Hillhouse, on the west bank of the River Wyre, for most of the twentieth century. AGC says the fluoropolymer plant at the centre of today’s PFOA investigation was “acquired from ICI” and that it has operated it since 1999. This page sets out what the documents say ICI made there, where its waste went, what the current investigations attribute to that period, and where the two main ICI companies are now. Every statement is sourced. Where a company or an agency is the source, we say so.

PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) is one chemical. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) is the class it belongs to. Where a source says one, this page says the same.

Who ran the site, and when

When What the record says Source
1889 to 1890 The Fleetwood Salt Company bought “22 acres of the Burn Naze end of the Fleetwood saltmarsh” in 1889 and built a salt works. In November 1890 it “was acquired by the United Alkali Company”. Wyre Archaeology Group, Preesall Salt Industry, Part 1
1892 United Alkali built “a ‘modern’ Ammonia Soda Works on a 42-acre farm … adjoining the railway sidings at Burn Naze”, supplied with brine from Preesall. Wyre Archaeology Group, Part 2
December 1926 ICI was formed from four companies, United Alkali among them (Grace’s Guide). Companies House gives 7 December 1926 as the incorporation date of the company it now lists as Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, with the previous name Imperial Chemical Industries PLC. Grace’s Guide; Companies House 00218019
1940 The Ministry of Supply “built two chemical defence factories, one at the southern end of the Hillhouse works and the other a new facility at Burn Hall”. Oxford Archaeology North (2006), para 1.3.10
From 1941 Visit Cleveleys: “From 1941 the assets of Hillhouse and Burn Hall Works in Thornton began to be acquired from the Ministry of Supply by ICI general Chemical Divisions.” The Blackpool Gazette (2018) adds: “This process continued until the 1950s.” An Environment Agency report (2001) says that after the war “Hillhouse was leased to ICI”. The sources do not reconcile purchase and lease. Visit Cleveleys; Blackpool Gazette, 13 September 2018; Environment Agency R&D Technical Report P5-042/TR/02, p.13
1947 and 1964 Grace’s Guide lists the Hillhouse works among the operating units of ICI’s General Chemicals Division in 1947 and in 1964. In 1964 the General Chemicals and Alkali Divisions “merged to become ICI Mond Division”. Grace’s Guide, ICI General Chemicals
1980 to 1999 The Environment Agency’s register gives the holder name “I.C.I. CHEMICALS & POLYMERS LTD” for the trade effluent consent at the “MAIN OUTFALL”, Hillhouse (effluent type “Trade - Process”), in versions /001 to /011 dated 1 January 1980 to 20 January 1999. The register gives no company numbers and appears to show later holder names against earlier versions (see below). The next version, /012 from 21 January 1999, is a different discharge description: site name “HILLHOUSE INT. BUSINESS CENTRE”, effluent type “Sewage & Trade - Secondary Treated Effluent and Trade Effluent”, at a different grid reference. It names Thornton Facilities Management Ltd. The only company of that name a Companies House advanced search returns (04673430) was incorporated on 20 February 2003; that search shows dissolved companies only from 2010. The register therefore does not show who held the consent from 21 January 1999. EA public register, consent NW/017290033/001 to /012
1993 Victrex “was established in 1993 following a management buyout from ICI”. Victrex plc, Our history
1999 Asahi Glass (now AGC) agreed on 29 September 1999 (UK time) to buy “the fluoropolymers business operated by Imperial Chemical Industries PLC”, including the “Hillhouse Plant (Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire, UK)”, making PTFE with 158 employees. “Completion of the purchase is expected to take place by the end of this year.” Visit Cleveleys: “Fluon production was the last of the ICI plants at Hillhouse and that was sold in 1999.” AGC news release, 30 September 1999; Visit Cleveleys
2003 The enterprise zone’s own page: “The site was acquired by NPL Estates in 2003.” Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone, Location
2 January 2008 AkzoNobel: “On January 2, 2008, we acquired 100 percent of the share capital of Imperial Chemical Industries plc (ICI).” AkzoNobel Annual Report 2008, note 2

The timeline has the wider chronology.

What was made there

Salt and brine from Preesall

The site existed because of the salt under the Over Wyre countryside. By the end of 1891, the society’s history records, “a reliable pipeline was in operation under the River Wyre”. After the Preesall mine flooded in 1930 and closed early in 1931, the works manager told the Fleetwood Chronicle that “The Preesall works are simply a pumping station, supplying brine and water to the Ammonia Soda Works at the other side of the river.” In 1956, “in order to secure their water supplies for brine production for the future, ICI purchased 20 farms east of the fault line comprising about 1,550 acres”. The series, written in 1989, records that “About 1,000 tons of salt a day go under the River Wyre in the form of brine. It eventually becomes, among other things, PVC.” The same series records subsidence over the Preesall workings in 1891, 1930 and 1934.

Source: Wyre Archaeology Group / Pilling Historical Society, “The Preesall Salt Industry”, Parts 1, 2 and 5 (Part 5 covers 1925 to 1989).

Chlorine and caustic soda

Visit Cleveleys states that “At one point, almost 90,000 tons of chlorine a year were made at Hillhouse” and that “In 1992 the chlorine plant was closed.” AGC’s site investigation page says “ICI Hillhouse had a chlorine-production facility until 1992.” The Environment Agency’s 2001 report on chemical weapons sites describes the wartime “Hill House” as “An ICI plant near Fleetwood used for the production of chlorine for use at the other production plants”, and lists Hillhouse among the Ministry of Supply’s sites for agent production, with munition charging, and for intermediate production.

On the cells used to make chlorine from brine, the Salt Association, which “represents UK salt manufacturers”, states that United Alkali installed Gibbs diaphragm cells at a series of works, “Later installations were at Allhusen’s Works, Gateshead, Hillhouse at Fleetwood and Wade Works at Northwich”, and that “Within ICI, in addition to Castner Kellner at Weston Point, there were cellrooms of ICI-Solvay mercury cells at nearby Rocksavage, at Hillhouse, Fleetwood and at Billingham and Wilton.” It adds that in the 1960s the remaining ICI Gibbs cells at Billingham, Wade Works “and possibly also those at Hillhouse Works near Fleetwood” were replaced with an ICI diaphragm cell. The page gives no dates for the Hillhouse mercury cellroom.

Sources: Visit Cleveleys; AGC Chemicals Europe, Site Investigation page; Environment Agency R&D Technical Report P5-042/TR/02 (2001), pp.12-14, whose site table cites a published history of UK poison gas manufacture (After the Battle); The Salt Association, “The Electrolysis of Brine”.

PTFE, and the start of APFO use

AGC’s submission to the Environment Agency under Regulation 61 (20 December 2023) gives the start of fluoropolymer manufacture:

“Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (ICI) commenced TFE & PTFE manufacture at the Hillhouse site in 1952. These were granular products with no APFO use.”

For 1954 to 1959 it records “ICI development of dispersion polymerisation recipes from 1954 to1958. 20tpa TFE pilot plant operational in 1955 with a 200tpa TFE plant operational from 1956.” TFE is tetrafluoroethylene, the gas that is polymerised to make PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene); tpa is tonnes per year. The same submission says APFO (ammonium perfluorooctanoate) “was used as a charge stabilising surfactant during the polymerisation of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) in an aqueous medium to make polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) dispersions”, and that APFO and PFOA “both dissociate to the same C8F15O2- anion” in solution.

The submission does not name a first year of APFO use. Dalmijn and colleagues (2025) state: “From 1955 to 2012, ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO) was used as a processing aid for PTFE production.”

PVC, polyurethanes and PEEK

  • PVC (polyvinyl chloride). In the Commons on 3 February 1977 the Secretary of State for Employment referred to “the decision announced on Friday by ICI to invest £25 million on a new PVC plant at Hillhouse near Blackpool”, to “come on stream in 1979”. That is an announcement; we have not found a document showing whether the plant was built. In May 2007 INEOS ChlorVinyls announced that it was to sell its E-PVC business, including its “E-PVC production facilities at Hillhouse (UK)”, to Vinnolit (ChemEurope, 23 May 2007). Vinnolit Hillhouse Ltd’s site condition report, submitted to the Environment Agency for permit EPR/TP3833GG, states that “The site ceased operation in August 2019” and records using up “the remaining Vinyl Chloride (VCM)” before closure. We have not found a document showing whether the plant ICI announced in 1977 was built, what it used, or whether it is the plant later owned by INEOS and Vinnolit.
  • Polyurethanes. Visit Cleveleys: “A new polyurethane plant was built in Holland and work transferred there in the mid 90’s from the ageing Thornton plant.” No source we hold names the chemicals used.
  • PEEK (polyether ether ketone). Victrex “traces its origins to ICI, where PEEK was first developed in 1978”. The Victrex page does not say where at ICI.

PFOA under ICI: what the operator’s figures say

The Environment Agency asked AGC for “total mass releases of PFOA to air, land, water and in products from first production (ICI period) on site to 03/10/2023”. AGC’s answer, dated 20 December 2023, gives a total of “approximately 178 tonnes”. Its Table 1 splits the figure by decade. These are AGC’s estimates, made in 2023; the submission does not say how the ICI-era figures were derived.

Decade (as AGC gives it) Air (t) Land (t) Water (t) In product (t) Captured and incinerated (t) Total used (t)
1952 to 1953 - - - - - -
1954 to 1959 0.7 0.1 0.7 0.9 - 2.4
1960 to 1969 5.0 0.5 5.1 6.0 - 16.5
1970 to 1979 6.6 0.6 6.8 7.9 - 22.0
1980 to 1989 8.9 0.9 9.0 10.6 - 29.3
1990 to 1999 13.2 1.4 14.2 17.7 - 46.4
2000 to 2009 14.7 2.6 17.2 18.8 2.1 55.4
2010 to 2012 0.1 0.2 1.3 1.4 2.9 5.9
Total 49.1 6.2 54.3 63.3 5.1 178.0

Source: AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd, Regulation 61 Notice Submission, Part 6, 20 December 2023, Table 1. “PFOA not used after Q1 2012,” the table says. The totals, including each row’s “Total used”, are as AGC printed them, and some do not equal the figures beside them. AGC’s rows as printed add to 49.2 t (air), 6.3 t (land), 54.3 t (water), 63.3 t (in product), 5.0 t (captured and incinerated) and 177.9 t (total used), against AGC’s printed totals of 49.1, 6.2, 54.3, 63.3, 5.1 and 178.0. Four row totals also differ by 0.1 t from their own figures (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s). Our sums below are added from the rows.

Our arithmetic, not AGC’s: adding the rows in AGC’s table from 1954 to 1999 gives 34.4 tonnes to air, 3.5 tonnes to land and 35.8 tonnes to water. These sums are not a figure for ICI alone. AGC’s last pre-2000 row covers 1990 to 1999, and 1999 is the year AGC says it took over the plant (agreement in September, completion “expected to take place by the end of this year”). AGC’s table does not separate the months before and after the sale, so part of that row may fall in AGC’s ownership. PFOA “in product” went to customers and is not a release to the local environment.

Wyre Council’s investigation page puts the same history this way: “AGC provided estimates of emissions dating back to the 1950s, when ICI was in control of the site, up until 2012 when PFOA was phased out.” WSP’s Sandringham Avenue report for the Environment Agency (June 2026) states: “As part of historic operations undertaken by ICI Ltd, and subsequently AGCCE Ltd, the company has estimated that approximately 49 tonnes of PFOA were released to air between the 1950s and 2012.” Both rest on the company’s figures. Dalmijn and colleagues cite an Environment Agency estimate of “around 145 tonnes of PFOA” released over 1955 to 2012 (75 tonnes to the River Wyre and 70 tonnes to air).

Wyre Council’s page also states: “The use of this substance was within the terms of the official permit held by ICI and later AGC Chemicals Ltd, which was issued by the Environment Agency. Its use was also in line with UK legislation in place at the time.” The page does not identify the permit, its date or its conditions. The only Environment Agency register entries we found at a Hillhouse address that name an ICI company are the main outfall consent versions above; the register gives their holder name, dates and effluent type (“Trade - Process”), not their conditions. The holder-name search also returns a sewage consent, NW/017290263/001, in the name “I.C.I. CHEMICALS & POLYMERS LTD”, site “COLCHESTER HOUSE”, address “COLCHESTER HOUSE, FLEETWOOD ROAD, FLEETWOOD, LANCASHIRE”, effluent type “Sewage - Septic Tank Effluent”, start date 24 January 1994, with no revocation date shown. We have not established whether it relates to the Hillhouse works. The same search returns ICI-named consents elsewhere in England, at Runcorn and Billingham among others. We searched the water-discharge register by address (“Hillhouse”, “Thornton”), the waste-operations register by address (“Hillhouse”) and name (“Hillhouse Remediation”), and the installations register by address (“Hillhouse”) and postcode (FY5 4QD) on 12 October 2026, and all three registers by holder name (“I.C.I.”, “ICI Chemicals”, “Imperial Chemical”) on 14 October 2026. The holder-name searches of the waste-operations and installations registers returned no entry at a Hillhouse, Thornton or Fleetwood address. The 1977 landfill licence described below is on the register under its current holder only.

AGC’s table also notes against the 1980s: “In 1981 ICI established a joint venture with Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC) - ‘Asahi ICI Fluoropolymers Co., Ltd.’” AGC’s 1999 news release describes that joint venture as “jointly managing PTFE business in Japan”.

Where the waste went: the tips and lagoons by the estuary

North of the works, on former salt marsh beside the Wyre estuary, is a 42-hectare former landfill. In 2011 its leaseholder, Hillhouse Remediation Ltd, “part of the NPL Estates Limited group”, applied to Lancashire County Council to restore it. The application documents and the council’s committee report are the most detailed public account we have found of ICI’s waste disposal at Hillhouse.

Permissions. The applicant’s planning statement lists three planning permissions to ICI applicants, all now ceased: 12 November 1953, to an applicant the planning statement names as “ICI Chemical Industries Ltd”, for “Deposit of Waste Materials from the applicants works to fill and level the land for future use for industrial purposes”; 28 January 1960, to the applicant named the same way, for waste from its “own works”; and 14 April 1994, to ICI Chemicals & Polymers Ltd, for “Raising of present level of existing landfill site No4”. It states that the landfill “was operated from 1962 to 2004, under licence from Lancashire County Council and subsequently the Environment Agency.” The Environment Agency’s register lists the “Hillhouse Landfill Site”, licence 54006, as an “Industrial Waste Landfill (Factory curtilage)” first issued on 8 September 1977 and now held by Hillhouse Remediation Limited. The register extract does not name the original holder.

What went in. The applicant’s planning statement (August 2011) describes the site as “originally part of the ICI Hillhouse Chemicals and Polymers Limited” and says:

  • “Dry Tips 1 & 2 … were used until 1986 and 1987 for the disposal of a variety of chemical wastes, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), plastics, aluminium foil, sludges and organic wastes.”
  • “Dry Tip 3 … Limited information is available on the waste types for this tip.”
  • “Dry Tip 4 … was used for the disposal of general industrial and construction waste until 1999.”
  • “Lagoon No 1 and the former lime neutralisation plant … The lagoon was used for the neutralisation of acid waste streams containing chlorinated organics with lime.”
  • “Lagoon No 2 … was used for the settlement of acid wastes containing chlorinated organics neutralised with lime in Lagoon No 1.”

Its non-technical summary refers to “the contaminated waste material below” the proposed new landform.

What the county council recorded. Lancashire County Council’s committee report (7 December 2011) states that the site “was used for the disposal of solid waste from the manufacture of chemicals and for the treatment of waste waster effluents prior to discharge into the Wyre Estuary” [sic, “waste waster” in the original]. It continues:

“The site comprises a series of settling lagoons associated with the former ICI site that have been used historically for the deposit of waste materials included a range of chemical wastes. It is understood that the lagoons were constructed on salt marsh, are not contained, and are not capped. The applicant has identified the presence of soil, groundwater and leachate contamination.”

The report records that the Environment Agency had “no objection in principle” from a groundwater protection perspective, subject to further risk assessment, and that “Jameson Road Landfill site adjoins to the north”. Permission was granted on 2 August 2012. We have not established how far the restoration has progressed.

Other accounts. In December 2025 the Guardian quoted a person “familiar with ICI’s chlorine-producing Hillhouse site on the edge of Fleetwood in the 1970s, who preferred to remain anonymous”: “Effluent from different parts of Hillhouse was disposed of in the ICI landfill. It was massive. It was a system of open, shallow lagoons. One was a lake of acid. Parts of the waste was liquid sludge and some white solids went in there … There was no lining in the landfill.” The same article reports that Jameson Road “borders a former ICI landfill, which is thought to have received PFOA waste for decades”, and that “NPL Group, which manages the former ICI landfill, declined to comment.” The article reports Transwaste, the current Jameson Road operator, as saying that the area had been used as settlement lagoons for the chemicals industry since the 1940s, before being used for landfill.

Dalmijn and colleagues sampled water around the plant in February 2023. They report PFOA from 891 to 20,624 ng/L (nanograms per litre) at three points north of the plant, the highest PFAS levels of the study, and state: “the samples with the highest PFAS levels were taken around a discharge by a lagoon to the north of the site. This lagoon was used as an effluent pit by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), the former operator of the PTFE production plant and was, unfortunately, not accessible during sampling.” They also state that “two landfills to the north of the site (Hillhouse and Jameson Road) were used until 2014 for disposal of material from the plant, which included <5 tons of PFOA”. The paper does not say whether its ICI effluent pit is one of the lagoons in the 2011 planning documents.

Sources: Hillhouse Remediation Ltd, Planning Statement and Non-Technical Summary, August 2011, and Lancashire County Council Development Control Committee report, 7 December 2011, application 02/11/0656; Environment Agency public register, licence 54006; The Guardian, 2 December 2025; Dalmijn et al. (2025).

What today’s investigations say about the legacy

The investigation now under way is an inspection under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the contaminated land regime, carried out by the Environment Agency for Wyre Council. Its documents describe the source in these terms. Each is the body’s own statement.

  • Wyre Council (page last updated 9 July 2026): “This relates to historic usage of a chemical called PFOA at the former ICI site - now AGC Chemicals Ltd - between the 1950s and 2012.” On 3 July 2026 the council described the investigation as considering “potential historic contamination from the former ICI site - now operated by AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd”.
  • WSP for the Environment Agency, Phase 3 residential soils (March 2026), section 1.2: the inspection is “investigating potentially significant contaminant linkages that may be attributed to legacy emissions from the former ICI site, now the AGCCE facility. Aerial deposition of PFOA is considered to result from historical airborne emissions associated with the AGCCE facility and former site operators.”
  • WSP, Sandringham Avenue allotments (June 2026), section 2.3: “Deposition from legacy aerial emissions, associated with historical activities undertaken at the AGCCE Ltd facility (formerly operated by ICI Ltd), have likely resulted in PFOA concentrations present in shallow soils and locally grown produce”, and “historical emissions of PFOA to air from the AGCCE Ltd facility - including former site activities - is the most probable primary source of the elevated concentrations detected in offsite shallow soils.” The passages we quote do not divide the deposition between ICI’s years and AGC’s.
  • Environment Agency, surface water summary (July 2025): sampling at 13 locations on Royles Brook, Hillylaid Pools and the Wyre estuary was “part of an ongoing investigation into potential historical chemical releases from the AGCCE Ltd facility, part of the former ICI Ltd complex”. It reports PFOA at all 13 locations, peak concentrations of trichloroethylene (346 µg/l), cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (285 µg/l) and vinyl chloride (45.6 µg/l) “primarily” in downstream Royles Brook samples, and “Marginal exceedances for mercury … at two locations on Hillylaid Pools and Royles Brook.” It concludes that “the source and mechanisms of transport are not yet fully understood” and that groundwater data are needed. It does not attribute the solvents, the vinyl chloride or the mercury to any operator.
  • Environment Agency, quoted by the Guardian (19 October 2025): the Agency was “investigating the site and surrounding land for historic contamination unrelated to current operations”.
  • The Health Cell convened by Lancashire County Council’s Director of Public Health (kidney cancer assessment, last reviewed 12 May 2026): the inspection “relates to land surrounding the former ICI chemical manufacturing facility (now operated by AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd)”, and the Environment Agency supplied “information on the historical timing and relative magnitude of PFOA emissions from the former ICI/AGCCE facility”.
  • AGC (Site Investigation page, copy of 12 October 2026) says its voluntary on-site investigation goes beyond PFAS to “a range of chemicals used historically which are unrelated to fluoropolymer manufacture”, including “chlorinated solvents and heavy metals, notably mercury from historical chlorine manufacturing activities”, and that “in the 1940s the Ministry of Supply were actively involved in chemical production at the Hillhouse site”. It says the first stage of its intrusive on-site investigation is complete, a second stage began in June 2026, and “we are discussing the findings with the Multi-Agency Investigation Team”. The page publishes no results.

Where the two main ICI companies are now

AkzoNobel. AkzoNobel acquired the whole share capital of Imperial Chemical Industries plc on 2 January 2008 (Annual Report 2008, note 2). The same report records provisions for environmental costs of €318 million at 31 December 2008 and states: “In some cases this concerns sites divested in prior years or derelict sites belonging to companies acquired in the past.” In its sustainability section (page 199 of the report) it adds: “During 2008, we assessed all the former ICI sites against the AkzoNobel policy and standards and have contained the provisions. We have now set aside €318 million that we believe is sufficient for the sites where AkzoNobel has ownership or responsibility.” It does not name the sites. The words Hillhouse, Thornton and fluoropolymer do not appear in the report.

Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (Companies House 00218019) is active. Companies House lists its previous name as Imperial Chemical Industries PLC, for 7 December 1926 to 7 January 2008. Its registered office is The AkzoNobel Building, Slough, and its person with significant control is Akzo Nobel ICI Holdings. Its accounts for 2024 state that besides selling decorative paints, “the Company is an investment holding company and manages legacy matters relating to former businesses and assets which were owned by the Company when it operated as a public limited company”, and name Akzo Nobel N.V. as ultimate parent.

ICI Chemicals & Polymers Limited (Companies House 00358535) is also active, with the same registered office. Companies House shows it was incorporated on 1 January 1940 and named British Nylon Spinners Limited until 11 September 1987. The Environment Agency’s register lists the holder of the Hillhouse main outfall consent as “I.C.I. Chemicals & Polymers Ltd”, with no company number, against versions from 1980, before company 00358535 took that name. The register therefore does not show which company held the consent at each date. Its person with significant control is Dulux Limited. Its accounts for 2025, filed on 7 October 2026, state: “Following a programme of divestments, the Company is no longer involved in the manufacture of chemicals. However, the Company continues to carry out certain trading activities relating to its former activities and owns a number of waste disposal sites and other land interests in the UK.” They record environmental provisions of £15 million at 31 December 2025 for obligations “at various sites”, and name Akzo Nobel N.V. as ultimate parent.

Neither set of accounts names Hillhouse. The 2024 accounts of Imperial Chemical Industries Limited name manufacturing sites, among them Ashington and Stowmarket. The 2025 accounts of ICI Chemicals & Polymers Limited name Weston Marsh Lagoon, Runcorn, whose divestment “and associated environmental liabilities” the directors approved on 31 July 2025. We searched the text of both (read by optical character recognition, since both are scanned filings) for Hillhouse, Thornton, Fleetwood, PFOA and PFAS, and found none. The accounts therefore do not show whether Hillhouse is among the “waste disposal sites” or the “legacy matters”.

Other ICI-named companies. A Companies House advanced search on 14 October 2026 for active companies whose names include “ici” returned 28 results, and one for “imperial chemical industries” returned one (Imperial Chemical Industries Limited). Besides the two companies above, the “ici” results include Akzo Nobel ICI Holdings (06535182), ICI Pensions Trustee Limited (02512713), ICI Specialty Chemicals Pensions Trustee Limited (03486806) and an overseas company, ICI Theta B.V. (FC023430), whose address Companies House gives as that of Akzo Nobel N.V. in Amsterdam. This page deals only with the parent company and ICI Chemicals & Polymers Limited.

The land and the plant. AGC says it has operated the former ICI fluoropolymer plant since 1999. The purchasing company named in AGC’s 1999 release, Asahi Glass Fluoropolymers UK Limited, is Companies House 03825057, renamed AGC Chemicals Europe, Ltd. in December 2006. The enterprise zone’s own website says NPL Estates acquired the site in 2003. The 2011 planning statement says Hillhouse Remediation Ltd held “a long-term lease for the application site from the owners NPL Estates Limited”. AGC’s 1999 news release lists the plants and businesses bought; it says nothing about environmental liabilities.

Who is responsible for ICI’s legacy. No document we hold says. We looked in AGC’s 1999 news release, AkzoNobel’s 2008 annual report, the latest accounts of both ICI companies, Wyre Council’s investigation pages and the Environment Agency and WSP reports quoted above. On 3 July 2026 Wyre Council said the Environment Agency had concluded that Sandringham Avenue Allotments “meet the criteria to be determined as contaminated land”, the second allotment site after Occupation Road, and that the council “will now consider the Environment Agency’s conclusions and continue to follow the legal steps set out under Part 2A”. We hold no statement that a determination has been made.

What we do not know

  • What ICI’s own workers were exposed to. The Health Cell states: “Detailed occupational health records for former workers at the site were not available for review”, and that the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) confirmed such records “are not routinely held by the HSE and, where they exist, are likely to be retained by the employer or its occupational health provider.”
  • Past exposure in the community. The Health Cell states: “there are no historical, individual-level measurements of PFAS exposure from the relevant time periods.”
  • The source of the solvents and vinyl chloride in Royles Brook. The Environment Agency’s summary says “the source and mechanisms of transport are not yet fully understood”.
  • What is in one of the tips. The 2011 planning statement says of Dry Tip 3: “Limited information is available on the waste types for this tip.”
  • What AGC’s on-site investigation has found, including for mercury. AGC’s page says the findings of the first stage of its intrusive on-site investigation are being discussed with the investigating agencies, and gives no results.
  • How the 1999 sale dealt with past contamination. AGC’s 1999 news release is silent on it, and we have not seen the sale agreement.

What would answer these

Records to request include: from the Environment Agency, the historic consents and conditions for the Hillhouse main outfall from 1980, and the hydrogeological risk assessments for the former ICI landfill; from Lancashire County Council, the 2011 Environmental Statement, which we have not read in full; from AGC, the results of the stages of its on-site investigation that it reports as complete; and from the AkzoNobel companies, whether Hillhouse is among the sites covered by their environmental provisions. We will publish what any of them supplies. Open requests are tracked on Open questions.

Sources