By Morwenna Blake

NOTORIOUS Westbury firm Premiere Environmental were featured on HTV West's current affairs programme West Eye View on Tuesday, a week after Wiltshire County Council announced the good progress made at the site.

The company, based on the West Wilts Trading Estate, was at the centre of a series of safety scares in the 1990s.

The company left behind six thousand chemical drums, containing potentially lethal substances, when it went out of business in July.

The site was re-possessed by estate owners Legal & General and the clean-up operation began.

Consultants Monitor Environmental have been working with other agencies, including Wiltshire Fire Brigade, Wiltshire Constabulary, the Environment Agency and Wiltshire County Council, since July to ensure the safe clearance of the site.

Wiltshire County Council have announced that they expect to have cleared between 50 and 60 per cent of the waste left at the site by mid-December.

It is hoped that at least part of the bill will be paid from a fund the company had to contribute to, rather than the taxpayer, but this is not yet clear.

David Knight, senior project manager for Monitor Environmental, said this week: "We are pleased with the progress we are making to date and are steadily removing containers from the site.

"We are working with the Environment Agency, the police and the local authorities to do this work and the safety of staff working on the clear-up, site neighbours and the safety of local residents is paramount as we carry out this project."

West Eye View featured Premiere as part of its programme about the problems currently faced by Gloucestershire village Sandhurst, where a fire followed by flooding at a chemical firm has led neighbours to complain of illness and fear their homes may be contaminated by toxic waste.

In 1995, Premiere Environmental was fined £20,000 for twice polluting the River Biss.

It was also fined on two other occasions for stockpiling dangerous chemicals over its limit of 5,000 drums.

A series of fires and toxic leaks followed in 1997.

On one occasion, 20 people were taken to hospital complaining of sore eyes and breathing problems after a chemical leak.

By the mid-1990s, the company had built up huge debts and went out of business in July 2000.

People living and working near the company welcomed the news that it had ceased trading.

Campaigner Joyce Smith, said: "All we want now is to see the damn place cleared and them gone once and for all."