The Council is aware of a number of significant fires at the Launders Lane site earlier this summer, which have caused further distress and disruption for residents.
Several of these incidents have triggered a large response from the London Fire Brigade, which included the use of 10 fire appliances to tackle one blaze, and six for another.
In addition to the obvious foul smells and visible smoke, real-time air-quality monitors around the site show significant but short lived periods of poor air quality (PM2.5) at different locations depending on wind speed and direction (breathe London website).
Despite this, air quality in Rainham is similar to that elsewhere in Havering and adjoining boroughs and meets UK legal limits. This doesn’t make the fires any more acceptable, and the Council will continue to use the tools available to ensure the landowner, DMC (Essex) Ltd, takes action to reduce the risk of future fires. As you may know, the site is privately owned land, which limits the options the Council has available to try to resolve this situation.
To try to stop these fires happening, the Council has served a Statutory Nuisance Abatement Notice and a preliminary Community Protection Warning notice on the private landowner.
The Statutory Nuisance Abatement Notice means that, should further fires occur after May 2024 causing smoke and fumes to be released into the area which significantly affect residents, further formal action can be considered.
The Community Protection Warning seeks to address the detrimental effect on the quality of life of local people, and the unreasonable burden on the Fire Brigade. It requires DMC (Essex) Ltd to carry out proactive steps to minimise the likely occurrence of fires, and other appropriate action. This could include securing the site to prevent unauthorised access (due to fire risks from further fly-tipping and possible arson). The CPW includes key milestones that DMC (Essex) Ltd must adhere to, and we will be reviewing the site in August 2024 to ensure they have complied with the CPW.
DMC (Essex) Ltd has now appealed against the statutory nuisance abatement notice and we are awaiting the date of the appeal from the Courts. The notice is suspended until the appeal is decided, however please let us know the details (including time, impact etc.) about any fires so evidence can be gathered to support any action.
The best way to do this is to use a Diary Sheet to record how these fires might be affecting you. You can find these sheets on the Council website, along with explanatory information on statutory nuisances. You can then return them to us via email.
Pre-application advice has been sought by the landowner on their proposals for the site. Advice has been given by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) in reply, however no formal planning application for the proposals has been received. It is open to the landowner to submit a planning application if they so wish and for the LPA to reach a formal decision on the proposals.
What to do if there is another fire
At the immediate time of a fire incident in Arnold’s Field (on Launders Lane), residents should contact the LFB first, and follow any guidance they give on how to protect yourself from any harmful smoke and other irritants/pollutants. This may include remaining indoors and closing windows.
After contacting the LFB, please let us know about the fire so we can begin gathering evidence to support our notices against the landowner. You can do this by emailing the Launders Lane inbox, or by calling 01708 432777 during office hours. Thank you to those who have already been in touch.
|
