Environment chief urges residents to oppose plan for two-year Welbeck landfill site extension

People have until Thursday (July 6) to comment on proposals to continue dumping material at Welbeck until the end of 2025.

Coun Jack Hemingway has spoken out against the extension application.

Welbeck is due to be turned into a country park when the site finally closes.

The tip has been in operation since 1998 amid claims of bad smells, harm to the land, pollution of the River Calder and the site being used for dumping animals, including a dead whale.

FCC Environment, also known as Welbeck Waste Management Ltd (WWML), wants more time to dump a further 50,000 tonnes of waste at the site.

Coun Hemingway, the council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I want to make the position clear.

“As a local councillor and as a cabinet member for green space, I want to see Welbeck become a country park as soon as possible.

“It is very disappointing to see this application for a further extension.

“There is a trust and confidence issue here.

“People have seen extensions for a limited period promised in the past and yet again they have come back and asked for another extension.

“I think it is only right that the public have a say on this and that their views are respected.”

FCC Environment has invited interested residents and “stakeholders” to take part in a consultation.

The company says the extension is needed due to a reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill.

It also says Covid-19 has led to less waste going to the site.

A formal planning application is expected to be submitted to the council and considered by its planning and highways committee.

The site is within Coun Hemingway’s council ward of Stanley and Outwood East.

He said he had already lodged his own objections with the company, along with fellow Labour ward councillors Matthew Morley and Lynn Masterman.

Coun Hemingway added: “We have been onto the company’s website and made crystal clear we oppose the extension.

“We don’t think their rationale has been supported by enough evidence.

“We want to get this site back to nature as seen as possible.

“It is a vital green space. You have got City Fields now just across the canal.

“People need somewhere recreational like that.

“Hopefully, for all those reasons, we can make a compelling case for why it should not go ahead.

“Fundamentally, regardless of what the company wants, it is what the residents who live there want.

“If I was them I would be sick to the back teeth of it and we are there to represent their voice.”

Two years ago, residents and protesters were given assurances that the tip would finally close in 2023.

Residents Against Toxic Scheme (RATS), the campaign group who has objected to the landfill site throughout its lifetime, described the latest extension plans as a ‘betrayal’ when they were revealed earlier this year.

Group chair Paul Dainton said at the time: “People in Wakefield have had to put up with this for nearly three decades.

“While ever there is a penny to be made from Welbeck, they won’t go away.

“It is purely about profit.”

To comment on the proposals visit: welbeckconsultation.fccenvironment.co.uk/.