Bellway have finally agreed to the Environment Agency’s demand for works to cap the landfill at Billet Road to be done under an Environmental Permit.
Quite why it took 3 objections from the Environment Agency to achieve this has not been explained.
Bellway’s obvious reluctance to agree to this requirement seems at odds with their very recent experience of an Environment Agency’s Enforcement Action described in numerous reports:
Bellway pays £100,000 to charity following illegal waste activity. Bellway dumped “2,688 cubic meters of contaminated waste soil – containing wood, metal, wire cables, rubber, plastic and vehicle tyres – onto its housing development site” in 2017 and removed it in Aug 2020 as a result of the enforcement action.
Government Press Release Gov.uk here
The EA commented that enforcement undertakings “supports the prevention of repeat incidents by companies improving their procedures to ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.”
You would think Bellway should have known an environmental permit was required to import waste soil for the contaminated land capping just a couple of years later!
According to the article “Bellway claimed it followed the advice of a consultancy which said it was appropriate to import the contaminated soil’.
I am sure we are all eager to know which ‘Consultancy’ said it was ok to import the waste described above but their name has been omitted along with the amount they were paid for such advice.
The EA have written to Redbridge withdrawing their objection as Bellway have agreed to obtaining an Environmental Permit. They list their advice in the 3 page letter below.
We are pleased that the works, if approved, will be under The Environment Agency’s watchful eyes as well as those of the site neighbours.