Homes bordering Stanway pit in Colchester were at "very severe risk" of gas poisoning earlier this year, This Is Essex can reveal today.

A horrifying list of problems relating to December 1998 and February 1999 have been highlighted in an Environment Agency report into Bellhouse Pit which included the "very severe" risk of "gas migration into nearby houses".

The agency issued enforcement proceedings against the operator of the offending part of the landfill pit, Ex Waste, requiring immediate action - or face being hauled before the courts.

But today Ex Waste's acting operations manager Pat Anderson said all those works had been completed and he was confident there was no risk to the public.

The catalogue of faults in the report included:

"Large quantities of gases migrating out of the site at concentrations that are potentially harmful"

The possibility of landfill gas "causing a flash fire"

Off-site migration causing "vegetation die-back"

The report also said acceptable limits for residents' exposure to carbon dioxide should be 0.5 per cent v/v.

But between December 1998 and February 1999 these were 6.3 per cent.

Mr Anderson said when Ex Waste began using gas to produce electricity - a more environmentally-sound method - there were "teething problems" that led to the "gas migration".

But he added the company had since implemented many measures to ensure it never happened again.

These included a "passive venting curtain" - a way of catching stray gases should every other preventative method break down.

He said gases never actually reached residents' homes and added: "All systems are being made much safer to prevent any problems in the future."

Earlier this year there was an underground fire at the site. Mr Anderson said immediately the well in which it had occurred was sealed and it had not repeated.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman confirmed today enforcement action was issued against Ex Waste on March 24.

It gave the company eight weeks to comply with two requests. The spokeswoman added it was "certainly not usual" for the agency to resort to issuing enforcement notices.

She said the agency was in day-to-day contact with Ex Waste and would "monitor the situation closely".

Stanway Parish Council meets tonight at Tollgate Hall, Villa Road at 7.30pm, and will discuss the report.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.