ANGRY councillors and residents claim a “toxic mound” of waste has been dumped close to homes and a school and they can get no answers about when or how it is going to be moved.

Parish councillors at Leeming Bar have challenged the developers and Hambleton District Council environmental health officers over the site at Leeming Gate for the past seven months.

Mulberry Homes is building 82 houses on the site and residents are concerned that a mound of what they claim may be contaminated waste has been created on part of the site, dug out of an old foundry tip.

They are also concerned at a further 15ft-high embankment of soil dumped on farmland outside the development site, backing onto homes.

But Mulberry Homes says the soil is undergoing natural biological processes to remove contaminants and say it is a routine process.

Parish council chairman David Crisp said: "The contaminated waste is a prime concern. The primary school is only across the road. When they dug it out there was a horrendous smell, it was just like an oil refinery.”

Cllr Margaret Tiplady said sheeting had been put over the mound but it was constantly blowing off.

“When it first appeared at Easter, we were told it would only be there a couple of weeks,” she said.

Hambleton’s director of environmental health Mick Jewitt said they had had three complaints about petrochemical odours in April and May, and two about the sheeting, which were rectified.

A spokesman for Mulberry Homes said: “This is a routine process on a brownfield development site like this and we have been liaising with the environmental health team at Hambleton District Council over this remediation work.

“This process is now complete and the soil will be moved next week.”