Conducted by the Local Government Association (LGA) coastal special interest group, the findings identified 195 sites, comprising both historic and active landfills, across 24 councils as being at risk of tidal flooding or erosion.
However, the total number is likely to be higher, the LGA says, due to “ambiguity” and some coastal landfills being grouped into larger management areas. It is thought there are approximately 1,200 to 1,400 historic coastal landfills in the UK currently at risk of coastal erosion and flooding.
Many of the sites are more than 100 years old, the LGA says, meaning there are “significant gaps” in the understanding of what waste they contain, which could include early plastics.
More than two-thirds (67%) of the local authorities who identified coastal landfills within their boundary as being at risk from flooding or erosion said they had already experienced one or both of these at their sites.
The LGA says councils want to work with the government to find a “long-term solution” to the problem. This would include urgent funding to allow councils to embark on immediate remedial works to stop the leaching of pollution from the sites that are already eroding or being flooded, as well as developing an understanding of what these sites contain.
Only three local authorities told the LGA they had sufficient budgets to monitor and maintain the defences in front of coastal landfills.
‘Urgent support’
Cllr David Renard, the LGA’s environment spokesperson, said Britain’s coastlines needed urgent support. “This problem will not go away and funding is needed to prevent hundreds of disasters on our shores. Councils want to protect their local environments but need urgent support from the government to save our coastlines from this ticking timebomb.”
This problem will not go away and funding is needed to prevent hundreds of disasters on our shores
- Cllr David Renard, LGA environment spokesperson
Mark Stratton, officer lead for coastal landfill at the special interest group, said he had visited several of the hundreds of sites at risk and continued to be overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.
He added: “It is quite difficult for me to understand how, despite years of lobbying and the release of the 25 Year Environment Plan in 2018, there is still no clear national policy or funding provision to protect these sites from eroding or leaching out on to the often designated natural coastal environment.” Three-quarters of the coastal landfill sites identified by the survey are adjacent to at least one designated environmentally protected areas.
Letsrecycle.com contacted the department for environment, food and rural affairs for comment.
Survey
The LGA’s special interest group comprises 57 local authorities, 26 of whom responded to the online survey which ran between 5 July and 2 August 2022.
The 57 member councils cover 60% of the English coastline, the LGA says, and represent 16 million people.
The LGA says it accepts that a questionnaire does not provide a complete overview of the current national picture of coastal landfill management. However, it says the questionnaire’s purpose was to seek input from local authorities who own or manage coastal landfills, to help bridge gaps in the current evidence base around the challenges faced nationally.
Related link
LGA coastal special interest group & coastal group network coastal landfill questionnaire report
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