Residents take legal action over fires at landfill

Around 70 firefighters tackled a fire at Arnolds Field in 2020

A campaign group made up of local mums is prepared to take an east London council to court over perennial fires at a landfill.

Clean Air in Havering says it wants to challenge the council after it decided not to designate Arnolds Field, in Launders Lane, as contaminated.

If the landfill is legally designated as contaminated the council and the Environment Agency will have specific legal duties to ensure it is cleaned up.

Havering Council has said it is "aware of the proposed legal action" and is therefore "unable to comment further at this time".

Campaigners described their pre-action letter prepared by a law firm in London as a "desperate last resort" as residents in Rainham had become the "forgotten people of Havering".

Ruth Kettle-Frisby, from the group, said the situation was "completely untenable" and "cannot continue any longer".

She said: "Their distress has been minimised and invalidated. Nearby schools and parks have remained open while billowing smoke filled the air.

"It’s completely unacceptable – people are fearful for their kids' futures."

She added that clean air was a "public right" and "should not depend on where you live".

The land has caught fire more than 100 times in the past five years, sending acrid smoke towards nearby houses.

The London Fire Brigade has previously said the fires were "distressing" and put firefighters at "unnecessary risk".

Soil analysis from November 2023 showed the land could contain asbestos, as well as plastic bags, crisp packets, bricks, cans, polystyrene and asphalt.

In August, Havering council threatened the owners of the land with separate legal action if they did not do more to prevent the fires.

The owners, DMC Essex, said it would appeal the abatement notice and pointed to "historic waste previously deposited prior to the landowners’ purchase [in 2017]" as the cause.