IN his letter of reply (March 18), Mr Paul Cooke, head of schools' planning and management services, seeks to reassure staff, parents and pupils by his statement that the council has recently commissioned a full risk assessment of the dangers presented by locating the new Radcliffe Riverside High School so close to the Tower Farm and Ee's landfill site.

Some of the products of the decomposition are gases such as methane which, besides being highly flammable, when escaping from landfill sites, will react with other pollutants in strong sunlight to produce ground-level ozone and contribute to photochemical smogs.

Carbon dioxide, being heavier than air, presents serious dangers because it has a tendency to accumulate in, for instance, cellars or service ducts. There are also volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which are carcinogenic, mutagenic or, in some other way, toxic.

Landfill gases are considered capable of migrating through permeable soils up to 250 metres or even further if there are subterranean cavities present, while toxic substances or chemicals in the fill can attack building materials. Environment Agency advice is that no new landfill site should be located within 250 metres of buildings. Is not the converse true, that no new buildings should be within 250 metres of a landfill site still generating noxious substances?

According to reliable sources such as Friends of the Earth - and other environmental organisations whose websites this information is taken from - toxicity and generation of gases can continue for decades and, theoretically, for 100 years or more.

Testimony of ex-tipper drivers reveals that all manner of hazardous materials exist in this site, namely radioactive hospital plates, asbestos, tanker-loads of waste oils and acids, animal carcasses as well as the more conventional tipping of household rubbish, out-of-date foods and detergents from manufacturers and supermarkets.

It is to be hoped that the council survey will be conducted by an unbiased, independent organisation and that its findings are made public, because this is much too serious an issue to receive anything but the gravest consideration.

STILL VERY

CONCERNED PARENTS