Three Yorkshire landfill sites to get additional 1,000 tonnes of waste

The Kirkstall based site in West Leeds has been severely fire damaged with demolition of a majority of the waste transfer site necessary, according to West Yorkshire Fire Service (WYFS). The rest of the site remains closed until further notice.

Sites selected to receive the extra waste are: Shanks operated Peckfield Landfill in Garforth, West Yorkshire; Waste Recycling Group owned Welbeck landfill site in Wakefield – one of Europe’s biggest landfill receiving 560,000 tonnes of waste a year; and Biffa owned and operated Howley Park landfill site, in Leeds.

These sites will receive the additional 80% of the total waste collected in Leeds, which Leeds City Council said could be anything up to 1,000 tonnes everyday.
Recyclable material would go to an East Leeds based site in Seacroft, some five miles away from Kirkstall, and the public are being directed to this facility.

Prevention

Fire-fighters have now been called off the scene, which up until yesterday afternoon was still smouldering after it started on Sunday evening. Further information from the WYFS suggests fire fighters were unable to contain the blaze any earlier than they predicted because of the nature of the blaze and, as because much of the burning waste was housed inside the transfer station halls, thus making the building unstable and susceptible to collapse. Fire-fighters were forced to fight flames from outside of the transfer site, and this, said WYFS spokesman, Stephen Hardy, caused additional and sporadic fires to occur up to two days after the initial flames.

Due to the dangerous structure now remaining, Leeds City Council will be forced to pull the structure down before fire investigators can enter the scene. Although it is not believed much evidence will remain after the demolition. So far, an initial investigation has begun and is expected to report by Monday.

Regulation


According to an email received from Leeds City Council, fire prevention equipment had failed to kick-in due to part failure with its systems. This is believed to have caused the fire to spread and become more difficult to control.

Mr Hardy said: “Workplace regulations put the duty on the employer to protect its workforce”, in regards to fire safety regulations. He said, although fire services could enforce regulation, the onus on safety and risk assessment and installing and checking fire prevention measures remained on the employer, in this case Leeds City Council”.