I have been approached by the Planning Department of the London Borough of Havering who want the Environmental Health Service to get rid of its specific landfill gas planning condition in favour of a landfill gas informative.
LB Havering has some 70 landfills in a very concentrated area which is surrounded by housing and commercial/ industrial buildings. LB Havering was traditionally the dumping ground for commercial/ industrial wastes in East London.
Some of the older landfills have housing built on the them and will be investigated under Part 2A Of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in due course.
My main concern is that planners are simply asking EH to ditch the landfill condition in favour of an informative so that they can meet targets on fastrack planning applications.
Has any other local authority officer had to defend their landfill gas condition against planners?
We have numerous landfills in the borough which are over 50 years old and are still gassing with significant concentrations and flow rate of gases to warrant keeping the condition in its entirety.
Malcolm Hughes
Environmental Protection Officer
London Borough of Havering
|