Rotherham tip: Officials ignoring evidence over landfill site

Campaigners claim officials are ignoring evidence which could prevent more waste being dumped at an old landfill site.

The site, at Kimberworth in Rotherham, closed in the 1990s and contains toxic industrial waste.

The Environment Agency (EA) is allowing Grange Landfill Ltd to reopen the site and dump waste on an adjacent field.

Opponents fear that would disturb hazardous materials in the closed tip. The company has declined to comment.

The Droppingwell Action Group, which opposes the plan for 205,000 tonnes of waste being dumped a year, said the company had filed false groundwater readings, which are required before the site can become operational.

Steve McKenna, from the group, said: "We discovered a couple of months ago using EA data that they've actually been submitting test results from a borehole that was filled in three years ago.

"That tip is full of cyanide, asbestos and other toxins…that makes these tests all the more important.

"Because at the end of the day all this is around the health and safety of the local residents."

Mr McKenna has presented his evidence to Rotherham councillors and told the EA, which said it was aware of the allegation and was "actively investigating".

An EA spokesperson said it would ensure the company met the strict conditions of its permit to operate.

"No waste disposal activities are to commence until our specialists are fully satisfied that the landfill infrastructure has been engineered to the relevant standards," they added.

"Once operational, the site will only receive inert waste, which poses no significant pollution risk to communities or the environment."

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council was also aware of legal problems with the permits for the site.

Legal advice, commissioned by the council in 2018 and seen by the BBC, says the EA should have initiated a closure notice for the site in 2006 under new waste regulations as the operators failed to apply for the relevant permit.

When the EA agreed to a "variation to the permit" in 2016 it also failed to do a public consultation.

However, the EA said it was not obliged to undertake a consultation for a permit variation, adding: "There was no reason to consider this site of high public interest."

The council's legal advice was the change in permit was substantial and the decision not to consult was consequently unlawful.

The advice concluded the operator did not therefore have planning permission.

Councillor Emma Hoddinott, is in charge of waste policy for the council, and said it had not ruled out legal action.

"We have written to Robert Jenrick, the secretary of state for planning, to ask him to intervene," she said.

"We believe the safeguards aren't in place and we want them to act now."

She said the council had not put the legal advice it has received into the public domain because it could jeopardise any future court case.

However, another councillor said he was at a loss as to why the council has not used the advice.

"For the price of a first class stamp we can send that legal brief to the EA and stop this tip and yet this council can't do that," Paul Hague said.

"For me it's a failure of duty in public office."

Inside Out (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire) investigates the story above on BBC One at 19:30 GMT on Monday 16 March and can be seen afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

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