Illegal waste dumping causes significant environmental issues,
including visual blight and poor air quality. These can have
significant impacts on local communities. In London, for example,
there is a long-running issue at Launders Lane in Havering where
fires on a site blighted by illegal dumping have been causing
significant environmental and health impacts.
The London Assembly Environment Committee has
written to the
Environment Minister calling for an ongoing programme of
Government funding to help clear contaminated land in London
caused by illegaldumping of waste.
In a letter to MP, Minister of State at the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Committee
highlights evidence that local authorities are often left to bear
the costs of remediation, and calls for funding to support urgent
clean-up work at the most serious sites.
It also notes that while the Environment Agency monitors the
environmental impacts of illegal dumping, provides advice to
councils and holds powers to clear sites, it told the Committee
it has no resources to remediate sites except where directed to
do so by Defra.
Chair of the London Assembly Environment Committee,
AM, said:
While preventing waste crime and prosecuting offenders must
remain a priority, for existing cases it is important that
further Government funding is available to support the urgent
remediation of the most serious sites, with costs to be recouped
from those responsible for causing it wherever possible.
We are asking the Minister to make ongoing funding available,
either through local authorities or the Environment Agency, to
help tackle contaminated land caused by illegal dumping and
address its most serious environmental and community
impacts.
Notes for editors:
- Find out more about the work of the Environment
Committee.
- The Assembly has also passed a recent motion Time for urgent action
over illegal waste sites .
- Read the letter here.
