In a letter sent on 22 August 2025 to Environment Minister Steve Reed, the council expressed “astonishment” that the Agency is still considering the expansion plan despite reports of compliance failures at the South London site.
Sutton Council opposes expansion
The council’s intervention follows a recent Compliance Assessment Report (CAR) which concluded that Viridor breached its environmental permit at Beddington.
The EA report found 916 exceedances of daily emissions limits for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) between September 2022 and March 2024 across the facility’s two waste lines.
While the EA and Viridor have said the breaches did not result in legal air quality exceedances and are “unlikely” to have harmed health or the environment, Sutton Council said the findings have further eroded public trust.
In its letter to the Secretary of State, the council demanded that Defra ensures:
- The EA publicly reassures residents that there is no public health risk
- The EA takes strong enforcement action against Viridor
- Monitoring processes are improved with independent verification and data published
- The Beddington site is inspected more frequently
The council also reiterated its opposition to increasing the tonnage of waste processed at the site, calling any approval in light of recent breaches “the wrong decision”.
Third-party error led to emissions under-reporting
A Viridor spokesperson told letsrecycle.com that the company “takes its environmental responsibility seriously” and aims for a “zero-breach policy.”
In 2023, Viridor conducted an investigation into the site after a power cut forced the facility offline.
The firm explained that the emissions reporting issue arose from a human error by an accredited third-party contractor responsible for emissions monitoring, which led to historic under-reporting of NOx data.
The spokesperson explained: “In March 2024, Viridor detected an issue with the system which controls how much nitrous oxide is emitted. Viridor discovered this accredited contractor responsible for emissions monitoring had put incorrect functions into the system, causing it to report inaccurate data.
“This contractor subsequently admitted liability and concluded its under-reporting was a direct result of ‘human error’.”
Viridor confirmed it self-reported the issue to the EA in March 2024, commissioned an independent investigation and has implemented new training and oversight measures for contractors.
It added that the EA and UK Health Security Agency concluded the breaches did not exceed Air Quality Standards.
The spokesperson added: “Viridor has reviewed the Environment Agency’s analysis, accepts its findings and will incorporate the recommendations.
“Viridor has taken this entire process extremely seriously from the outset and has done as much as it possibly could to resolve the issues that have regrettably arisen as a result of a third-party accredited contractor’s error.”
Beddington ERF faces ongoing scrutiny
The Beddington ERF, which treats residual waste from several South London boroughs, has faced ongoing scrutiny over its environmental performance.
The four South London Waste Partnership (SLWP) boroughs jointly objected to an application by Viridor to treat more waste at the Beddington plant in 2022.
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