Growers to defy greens warning
Shropshire villagers whose gardens were discovered to contain lead and arsenic have vowed to continue to eat their homegrown greens despite health warnings from the council.
People living near the former lead mineworks off Minsterley Road, Pontesbury, have been advised by the council to stop growing their own vegetables after soil analysis revealed high levels of contaminants.
But residents said they were fighting fit and not worried about the discovery.
Geoff Manley, pictured, chairman of the Pontesbury and District Gardening Association, said many residents in the Ashford Estate area had been there for decades and shown no sign of lead poisoning.
"Our old treasurer of the gardening association, Jack Simpson, grew veg and lived in Ashford Drive, and he died at 88," Mr Manley said.
"Jim Pugh is still up there and he is knocking on 90 and still looking well. John Taylor lives there and he is 101 and still drives his own car.
"I have heard about this contamination from various people, that the soil has been tested and they are going to do some more, but that is all. There are still people up there growing, grass, flowers, veg and everything else."
Both Gwynneth Hamer and Margaret Andrews, who live on Ashford Way, said that they no longer grow veg. Mrs Andrews said: "We are in our seventies now, and don't really do much gardening, but we just can't understand it at all."
Derek Brookes, landlord of the nearby Horse Shoes pub, said: "People round here have been talking about it, but what they have said is that in the modern day they don't grow vegetables, so it doesn't affect them."
See also: 'Don't eat your greens'
