Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
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Local landfill faces possible closure
Lewes MP Norman Baker today reveals the Beddingham landfill site may face closure in the near future. The news comes in a letter from Rupert Clubb, the Environment Agency’s Sussex Area Manager to the MP, stating it had refused the application for a Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) Permit at Beddingham.
The Environment Agency also revealed to Norman that the operating company has lodged an appeal with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Margaret Beckett. However if this is unsuccessful the Environment Agency will serve a closure notice on the operator, setting the final date by which the site is able to accept waste. The Pebsham landfill site in St Leonards also faces closure after its application for the PPC Permit was similarly rejected.
Earlier this year in a parliamentary answer to Norman, Margaret Beckett said the Beddingham landfill site had been turned down for a PPC Permit, firstly because leachate from the landfill posed an unacceptable risk to groundwater in the surrounding site, and secondly because the site’s liner system, which is designed to control the escape of leachate and gas from the site, required improvements. She did add, however, that the site did not pose a significant risk to human health.
The Beddingham and Pebsham Landfill sites are the only two landfill sites remaining in East Sussex and take a variety of different types of waste from industrial to domestic waste. The Beddingham site was also used to dispose of cow carcasses suspected of having BSE in the early 1990s, and continues to be able to receive low-level radioactive material.
Commenting on this Norman said:
"We won’t know for several months the whether the Beddingham site will definitely be closing but if it does, it will leave East Sussex County Council up the creek without a paddle."