Chemicals tycoon John White is the polluter who never paid. He left a toxic legacy of poisoned land and ruined lives across the west of Scotland.

His reward was a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Overtoun and a park in his name.

This month The Herald has revealed that Clydeside authorities do not have £54 million needed to clean up the most concentrated patch of contamination left by White’s long-gone business empire.

READ MORE: Toxic land poses 'immediate and long-term risk to public health'

Waste dumped by his firm, J&J White Chemicals, now presents an “immediate and long-term threat to public health”, according to documents we revealed and published yesterday. It has left underground rivers running jungle green pouring cancer-causing chromium-VI in to the River Clyde after rainfall.

White died in 1908. His family’s factory, at Shawfield – the site needing regenerated – closed in 1967 after various corporate incarnations.

The public purse is left facing his bills.

Now, some residents are asking whether the main green space in Rutherglen – which White donated to the burgh – should keep his noble name, Overtoun Park. The town’s MP, Ged Killen, has suggested the founder of the Scottish Labour movement should be honoured instead.

Mr Killen said: “I have been saying for some time that Hardie Park would be a more suitable name, given Keir Hardie’s involvement in trying to secure better working conditions and rights for White’s factory workers. But I realise people may have grown attached to the name and there may be little enthusiasm to change it.

READ MORE: Polmadie burn, Glasgow sealed off over dangerous levels of cancer-causing chromium

“It’s hard to imagine if we were naming a beautiful park such as Overtoun today we would choose the name of a man directly connected with the contamination of land across the local area.

“I think it would be nice if, at the very least, we could find some way to mark the contribution of the workers who put their lives at risk earning Lord Overtoun his fortune.”

Mr Killen, who represents Labour, has joined politicians from other parties, including the Glasgow Central

SNP MP Alison Thewliss, and list MSPs Patrick Harvie of the Greens and Adam Tompkins of the Conservatives, to call for a clean-up of Shawfield.

Mr Killen said: “The most important thing is that we get a firm commitment from every level of government that investment will be brought forward and the process of remediating the remaining contaminated land and bringing it back into economic use can be expedited.”

It was Hardie, as a campaigning journalist in his newspaper Labour Leader, who first highlighted the fate of those he called “White Slaves”, the workers at the Shawfield site who suffered horrendous health problems, including the loss of their noses from the chromium.

READ MORE: Fresh pressure over Polmadie Burn

Hardie’s campaign enraged White, who was a Liberal and a philanthropist who supported numerous good causes, including Glasgow’s Hospital For Sick Children. The Labour man exposed White’s hypocrisy

Labour historian and campaigner Blair McDougall explained: “White was very, very pious and a strong Sabbatarian who helped stop trams running on a Sunday, yet his own works were always open on a Sunday and his men were wading about in pots of chromium.

“The chemical ate away the cartilage in their noses, so much so they would eventually fall off. All over the south of the river there were men with hankies over their bloodied noses.”

White tried to stop Hardie’s reporting, sparking correspondence for and against his business in this newspaper, the then Glasgow Herald.

Mr McDougall said: “There were all these stories about how Overtoun’s health had been affected by this persecution by this terrible man. Eventually, Overtoun realised his public reputation was being damaged and gave his workers Sunday off and improved conditions.”