Environment Agency (EA) contractors started work to clear an abandoned village tip in Yorkshire holding 10,000 tonnes of smouldering waste yesterday (16 November).

Local residents have been campaigning for the Great Heck site, near Selby in North Yorkshire, to be cleared since its operators, Wagstaff Total Waste Management Ltd, entered voluntary liquidation in July.

The smell caused by the mass of mixed recyclable waste left on the site, which reaches heights of 50 feet in places, has been the cause of many complaints from local residents and businesses, with people complaining that the waste can even be smelled indoors. In addition, fires have been regularly breaking out in the waste, meaning a team from North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (NYFRS) has had to visit on a daily basis in recent months.

The air quality surrounding the site has been monitored, though Public Health England (PHE) says that the ongoing risk to health is low. However, with smoke regularly produced by fires, residents have been warned to keep windows and doors closed.

Wagstaff Total Waste Management ran a waste and recycling service including a skip hire service that offered to ‘respond quickly to ad hoc requests or provide longer term, contracted services’.

Two people have been arrested as part of the EA’s investigation into the pollution offence.

Clean-up operation

The issue has been investigated by a multi-agency partnership consisting of NYFRS, the EA, Selby District Council (SDC), North Yorkshire County Council and PHE.

The EA has secured ‘substantial funding’ to tackle the risk of pollution from the site, with SDC making a contribution to the first phase of the clearance.

Clearance will take place in phases so that the waste can be disposed of properly. There are a variety of waste piles at the site, with the pile creating fires scheduled to be cleared in phase two of the operation.

This week, a longer pile is being removed to make room on the site to allow damping down of the phase-two pile. In order to be transported away from site for proper disposal the waste must be at an ambient temperature, and so must be given space to cool and dry. Removal of the phase-two pile, the largest on the site, will take around six weeks, depending on weather. The partnership will then decide how to deal with the remaining waste, which is considered to cause the least risk and nuisance to residents, in the third phase.

Clearing the site is expected to cost around £750,000. The landowner will be ultimately responsible for the clear up, thought the EA says that it will provide some assistance.

More information of the Great Heck situation can be found on the Emergency North Yorkshire website.