The Lords’ waste crime inquiry chair has said she is ‘astounded’ an illegal waste site on the King’s estate has not been cleared by the Environment Agency.
The large-scale waste site in Bickershaw, Wigan, covers land partially owned by Wigan Council and the Duchy of Lancaster, which inherited the lot due to an ancient law.
Last year, a fire at the site forced nearby businesses and schools to close, and went on to burn for ten days.
Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, Baroness Sheehan, said she was ‘astounded’ the Environment Agency (EA) had committed to funding the clearance of a waste site in Kidlington and not the site in Bickershaw.
Last year, around 20,000 tonnes of waste was illegally dumped over many months on a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The site is approximately 150 metres long and six metres high.
The site garnered national media interest, with the Prime Minister calling it ‘utterly appalling’.
In a letter to Baroness Sheean, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) minister Baroness Hayman said that the EA does not consider the site to pose the same level of risk to the environment as the one in Kidlington.
In response, Baroness Sheehan said the Wigan site ‘constitutes a grave environmental hazard’ and requested that the EA share its risk assessment of both sites with the Environment and Climate Change Committee.
“The Committee would contend that the clearance of this site is as urgent, given not only its environmental risks but also because of its public health imperatives,” Baroness Sheehan wrote.
“It is not acceptable that local residents should have to wait for debates about land ownership or criminal proceedings to conclude before waste, which is blighting their lives, can be removed.”
Under environmental regulations, landowners are typically responsible for clearing illegally dumped waste, but an ancient law exempts the Duchy, as the estate did not inherit any liabilities attached to the property.
The MP for Makerfield, Josh Simons, has called on the king’s estate to pay for its share of the clean-up costs.
As well as the Kidlington site, the EA previously funded the clearance of an illegal waste dump in the Hoads Wood beauty spot in Kent.
Acumen Waste Services has been contracted to clear the Kidlington and is set to commence work at the end of February. Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh previously said the clearance will take approximately six to nine months.