Welbeck Landfill Site: Wakefield Council report admits mistakes

The site near Normanton has attracted complaints since it opened in 1998

Campaigners say their two-decade fight over a rubbish dump has been vindicated after a council admitted mistakes in its handling of the site.

Residents blame Welbeck Landfill Site, near Normanton, for land and water pollution and claim dangerous biological waste - including a dead whale - has been left there.

Wakefield Council has now published a "warts and all" report about the site.

Leader Denise Jeffery said it would show "what has gone wrong".

The site opened in 1998 and is run by Welbeck Waste Managed Limited (WWML) also known as FCC Environment, on a lease from the local authority.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, among the report's revelations was how the company avoided paying rent for several years as they threatened to walk away from the site.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting where the report was discussed, Ms Jeffery said: "This has gone on for a long time - over 20 years.

"Mistakes have been made and we feel now that we really need to put this into the public arena, so people can see what has gone wrong and how we attempted to put it right, or didn't put it right in some cases."

The site will be turned into a country park after it closes in 2025

Paul Dainton, the chair of Residents Against Toxic Scheme (RATS), the local campaign group that has objected to the landfill site, said he felt "vindicated" by the developments.

He added: "For this new Wakefield Council regime to finally accept that things could have been done far better, may be an understatement of past actions, of the Welbeck Management, the Environment Agency, officers, and past leaders of the council."

Earlier this year, the council accelerated plans to convert the site into a country park once the last waste is tipped there in 2025.

The BBC has contacted FCC Environment for a response.