The Agency said the joint clearance operation would commence once it has “clarified the legal issues with the owner of the site”.
The Cornwall Drive site has been under close scrutiny from authorities over the last two years due to the storage of thousands of tonnes of waste and a large number of fires prompting complaints from local residents and garnering national media coverage.
A recent fire in January 2015 resulted in the closure of nearby roads due to smoke from the site affecting visibility (see letsrecycle.com story).
Previously operated by now-insolvent Kent firm Waste4Fuel, the site in St Paul’s Cray had been used to store waste such as tyres, plastics, cardboard, metals and paper for processing into RDF.
However, the size of the large stack of waste and its proximity to neighbouring properties prompted various enforcement actions from the Agency, before the site was ‘abandoned’ and additional fencing installed last summer (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the latest plan to clear the site, Environment Agency area manager Andrew Pearce said: “Work is anticipated to begin this summer on the final clearance of the Waste4Fuel site in Orpington in a joint operation between the Environment Agency and London Borough of Bromley.
“Those responsible for depositing the waste or profiting from it are being actively pursued through joint Environment Agency and police operations. All available powers will be used to bring them to justice and ensure costs are repaid.”
Councillor Colin Smith, deputy leader of Bromley council, added: “The full details will become clear over the coming weeks and months, but as soon as the Environment Agency has managed to resolve their outstanding legal issues, we will be delighted to help find an acceptable resolution which we know would come as extremely welcome news to long-suffering local residents.”
Local MPs
News that a plan had been agreed to clear the site was welcomed by the three local Conservative Party MPs in the area – Bob Neil (Bromley & Chislehurst), James Brokenshire (Old Bexley & Sidcup) and Jo Johnson (Orpington).
Criticism had previously been levelled at both Waste4Fuel as well as the Environment Agency’s handling of the situation by Orpington MP Mr Johnson, who is the brother of the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
However, in a joint statement, the three MPs said last month (March 28) that the announcement would “finally bring relief to local people who have had to put up with the consequences of this waste mountain” as the fires at the site “have caused significant disruption and the rubbish pile is an absolute eyesore”.
The MPs said: “The agreement now made between the EA and the London Borough of Bromley is something which we have all worked hard to broker, making sure that local residents and the CRA20ten Association have been directly involved in the process.”
“We are pleased that hard campaigning has resulted in a solution to clear the site. Those responsible for causing this unacceptable situation need to be brought to account and lessons need to be learned as to how this regulated waste site could have got so out of control.”
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