There are fresh calls for action to stop old landfill sites in the South opening up and spilling onto beaches and into the sea.
Councils around the country, including in Hampshire, have inherited 1,215 coastal landfill sites from a time when it was considered acceptable to put rubbish near the sea. But now, coastal erosion means many are edging closer to the shoreline and risk spilling into the sea.
In Fareham, the borough council’s climate change scrutiny panel heard how while it is the responsibility of councils to maintain these sites, there is limited funding to do so.
While the meeting heard that Coastal Partners – a partnership of five councils working on coastal issues – is working to address coastal erosion across the Solent coast, some sites have ageing, failing sea defences where others have none.
In Fareham sites being used as case studies are landfills at Wicor Cams and Portchester Quay, and in Havant study sites at Broadmarsh and Brockhampton.
Coastal Partners’ Mark Stratton is part of a steering committee heading to Westminster this week to be part of a debate on coastal erosion and what needs to be done. He said he wasn’t being listened to five years ago but now ministers are listening and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is working on gathering information itself.
If nothing is done, Mr Stratton said we will potentially start to see some of these landfill sites eroding into the harbours and the environmental impacts occurring. He warned more of that will happen as sea levels rise through climate change.
He said funding, which can take up to five years, tends to be given based on threat to the number of properties. However, he wants government policy to include threats to infrastructure like roads and schools as well.
”We are doing our best to try and affect positive change, within the constraints we are given but we are not taking no for an answer,” he said.“That’s why we are putting so much effort into it and galvanising all the other local authorities around the country to try and avoid the environmental damage that none of us want to see.”
At January 14’s meeting, Councillor Chrissie Bainbridge (Lib Dem, Portchester Castle) said she lives on one of those landfill sites and her house will be one of 270 to be affected in 100 years. She suggested changes to rules so community infrastructure levy money from housing developers could be used for coastal landfill projects. She said: “We need to get nature to the top of the agenda and quickly.”
Defra said it is currently consolidating previous and current research relating to historic coastal landfill sites which aims to provide clear and up to date understanding of the scale of risks posed by these sites across England.
The consolidated evidence should then enable government to review the full scale of the picture and which would also help local responsible authorities and partners prioritise action and find funding sources.
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