WORRIED residents fear work to decontaminate a former gasworks could have exposed them to cancer-causing chemicals.

People living around the Heworth Green site, in York, have hit out at those responsible for removing earth from the heavily-polluted industrial site.

They claimed that secrecy has surrounded seven months of clean-up work to prepare the ground for a 148-home development.

But environment watchdogs insisted residents have not been put at risk by the complex operation to remove chemicals, including tar, cyanide, ammonia and carcinogenic coal naptha.

A public meeting heard that residents have endured several months of strong and unpleasant smells, which some believed may be affecting their health.

Developers started clearing the land in April and have already removed three metres of top soil and begun removing tar from the ground by flushing it out with water and chemicals.

The next stage, which could take a further 12 months, will clear ammonia from the ground.

A spokesman for Encia, responsible for part of the clear-up work, said when dangerous substances such as coal tar naptha were present, workers at the bore hole were at the highest risk, but the chemical dispersed quickly into the atmosphere.