DEVELOPERS preparing to build nearly 200 social homes on the toxic former Ravenscraig Hospital site plan to house families directly on top of untreated chemical pollution.

Link Group Ltd — which stands to receive £15m of public money after buying the ex-NHS land for a pound — say they will solve the problem of confirmed 'multiple exceedances' of poisons by using the development itself as the 'capping layer'.

Two of the company's most senior executives declared during a meeting with Inverclyde MSP Stuart McMillan that the development would be built on top of the dangerous toxins.

Elinor Taggart, Link's head of business development and acquisitions, and Colin Culross, the firm's director of development and asset management, stated the intention at the meeting — the minutes of which have been obtained by the Telegraph.

A section of the document attributed to the officials states: 'The new homes, roads and pavements will act as the capping layer to prevent access to the contaminated land.'

Respected contamination expert Professor Andrew Watterson, of the University of Stirling, says that both Link and Inverclyde Council have 'lots of questions' to answer regarding the apparent strategy.

Professor Watterson — who has specific expertise in hazardous substances and environmental exposure — said: "Has the company and the council's contaminated land officer [CLO] provided evidence and sources on which their risk assessments are based?

"These would not necessarily be in a summary document but should be available in more detailed reports.

"It is common practice for technical consultants and companies not to fully reference the material on which they base their opinions but simply to take them as 'given' or read.

"This means it is not always possible to check on how authoritative and up to date their sources are and what the strengths and weaknesses are of the research and technical reports they draw on.

"Maximum transparency should be the order of the day to demonstrate the thoroughness of any risk assessments and provide communities with the information they need to make their own judgements about those assessments.

"There are lots of questions that should be answered about what is proposed to the satisfaction of the community and council regarding this strategy and how effective it will be, in both theory and practice, before it goes ahead."

Link says it hasn't seen the minutes of the January meeting with Mr McMillan but confirmed that using people's homes as the barrier to the pollutants was discussed with the MSP.

The firm — a registered social landlord — has previously conceded it gave untrue 'assurances' that dangerous and cancer-causing chemicals in the soil were 'not leachable or soluble and will not migrate horizontally'.

Councillor Colin Jackson, who voted in favour of the proposed development when it was approved in March, has since said he would now vote against it.

This would reverse the 5-4 green light given to Link by Inverclyde Planning Board but council chiefs have declared they will not revoke or review the decision.

Among the pollutants lurking within the ground at Ravenscraig are cadmium, mercury, arsenic and lead.

We revealed earlier this year that the levels of contaminants were as much eight times above what the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs considers as 'suitable for use'.

A Link spokeswoman said: "At the time [of the meeting] the post-demolition site investigation report was still to be complete, therefore Link was not in a position to confirm what the final remediation strategy requirements would be.

"It was, however, advised that there was likely to be a requirement for a capping layer within gardens, and where there are buildings and roads, there would be a gas membrane incorporated as part of the building substructure and the buildings and roads would effectively provide the barrier to these areas in terms of the possible presence of any contamination."

It is understood that Link has been in frequent contact with the council's contaminated land officer, Roslyn McIntosh, whose approval must be gained for the finalised remediation strategy.

However, the housing provider appears certain it will overcome this final hurdle.

Link's spokeswoman said: "The remediation strategy, which will be approved by the council's CLO, will have full details of the necessary mitigation measures required to effectively remediate the site for residential housing.

"It would not be appropriate at this time, until this is approved, for Link to comment on what this will be."

Link previously stated that the finalised remediation strategy would be submitted for approval by the end of August but the document is yet to materialise and it's understood that CLO Ms McIntosh has 'issued comments' on a draft strategy.

Link says that these are 'being addressed' by engineers, adding: "It should be noted these are points of clarification only, this will allow the remediation strategy to be finalised and submitted to the CLO for final approval shortly."