BUILDING work has been delayed at a site in Drakewalls, to investigate claims that a cow and calf who died from anthrax are buried beneath the soil. Caradon District Council this week confirmed geophysics surveys were being undertaken at the site adjacent to Drakewalls Gardens, which has planning permission for 15 affordable homes. Meanwhile, local residents are mounting a campaign to try and stop the site being disturbed. It is believed a burial may have taken place in the field in the 1920s. The anthrax disease, is particularly virulent in cattle, sheep and goats. Although people can contract anthrax from breathing in the spores, expert advice states that cases are very rare. Just being exposed to these spores does not mean that people will get sick. A district council spokesperson said a resident contacted Caradon's environmental services team at the end of April with information about a potential cattle burial that may have taken place on the site. 'Burials of this type would normally have been registered with the relevant government body at the time,' the spokesman said. 'However, as a fire destroyed the government agency's paperwork covering this period, there is insufficient information either to confirm, or to rule out the cattle burial and its possible implications. 'We take our responsibilities to protect the health of people in South East Cornwall very seriously, and our environmental services team is co-ordinating and facilitating investigations into the site, working closely with the Health and Safety Executive, the Health Protection Agency and Defra.' As part of these investigations, the construction company contracted to build the houses was undertaking geophysics surveys to determine whether or not additional action was necessary, added the spokesperson. Neighbouring resident Ken Smyth has lived at Delaware Court, which backs onto the development site, for 20 years. He said: 'There are sites which have been turned down for development locally because of contaminated soil due to mine workings, but this could potentially be much more serious. 'We do not want the site being disturbed at all. If they start digging around in there it will be too late.' Sites where infected animals have been buried are usually marked to prevent future excavation. Mr Smyth said this area had been rejected for residential development for something like 40 years, but affordable housing could be built outside the development boundary: 'It has always been the opinion locally that there are more suitable sites for housing. With the risk this site poses, shouldn't the council be looking elsewhere?' Another resident, Kingsley Baker, said: 'If this site has any association with anthrax then it should be left for good. As far as the residents are concerned, while the land remains undisturbed we are not worried because no-one has become ill over the years, but any excavation work could make the spores airborne and we could breathe it in.' A member of the Percy Henwood Trust, which owns the land, said he was not aware of any infected cattle buried in the field: 'The trust has owned the ground for 50 years and members have farmed it. 'No-one has heard of any suggestion of anthrax. I am puzzled because I would have thought this would have come up before when other parts of the field were built on.' District councillor for the area Russell Bartlett said he had spoken to people in the past who remembered an incident taking place but they could not remember if it was anthrax or foot and mouth. He said that given the distance from the road, he would be surprised if any animal was taken that far down the field to be buried. A spokesman for Defra said the department was involved purely from an advice point of view: 'We have no records of any sites at Gunnislake, but that is not to say there is not something there because it may be a very old or an illegal site where the burial happened informally,' he said. 'Our advice would be to err on the side of caution and it is preferable that possible burial sites are not excavated, even though there is no legislation or advice against it.' A Health Protection Agency spokesman said: 'Buried cattle which have confirmed anthrax infection may still pose a risk to human health due to the longevity of harmful anthrax spores. 'That is why there is so much guidance and regulation around carcase burial sites.' Kathryn Pennington from the Devon and Cornwall Housing Association, which is developing the site, said the investigations were delaying the progress of this much needed affordable housing but they needed to be thorough: 'We want people to be assured that we are undertaking very robust and rigorous investigations and we hope to have the results of these in a couple of weeks. 'We hope the result will be good for everybody and we can get on with the housing.'