Residents at ‘breaking level’ as fires rain ash down on gardens

Residents living near a former landfill site feel ‘like prisoners’ in their own homes after regular fires in summer sends ash ‘raining’ down on their homes.

Locals fear a ‘health crisis’ is unfolding in parts of Rainham, Essex, where ‘rancid’ smells greet homeowners as they leave for work in the morning.

Arnold’s Field, in Launders Lane, had an estimated ‘30,000 to 40,000 cubic metres’ of unregulated waste dumped there more than a decade ago.

With constant fires at the site locals are at breaking point, and they feel like the air quality – and their health – is only getting worse.

Smoking rubbish from the tip which causes an unbearable stench for locals 

Christine Read says she feels ‘like a prisoner’ in her own home due to the rubbish 

The former foster carer has lived in Rainham for three years, and when she first moved from Dagenham to live with her son she worked outside for a year ‘constantly’ to help tidy up the garden.

Around 18 months later Christine was diagnosed with lung cancer and since then so has her dog.

Christine had to put her pet down, which she said was ‘absolutely horrendous’.

She said: ‘Since that, my son feels so guilty [for moving them].

‘And I feel as if I’m just sitting here waiting to die.’

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported last year that Havering Council was warned about the ‘potential risks to human health’ from Arnold’s Field more than 12 years ago, after a survey of the site found evidence of substances such as lead and benzo(a)pyrene – a large group of carcinogens.

The latest update from the council is that findings based on NHS data will be published in the ‘near future’ to see if residents present with respiratory issues during or immediately after a fire.

Havering Council was warned over the ‘potential risks to human health’ over 12 years ago

Havering Council recently published a health impact report looking into the incidences of cancer in residents near to the Arnold’s Field site when compared with Havering residents or England as a whole.

The report found that there were similar rates of lung cancer, brain cancer and haematological cancers (such as leukaemias) amongst those living near Launders Lane as in Havering as a whole – although the data analysed only went as far as 2020.

A poll on the Launders Lane Crisis Facebook group at the end of July this year found that more than half of residents in the area said they are suffering from sore throats and runny noses due to the landfill, while a smaller health survey conducted by residents in August showed that 94 per cent are experiencing these symptoms.

Pauline Claridge, who lives in Eastwood Drive, about a mile away from Launders Lane, said she is ‘fed up’. 

She said: ‘These last three weeks it’s reduced me to tears because it’s just unbearable.

‘It’s hot, you have to shut your windows and rely on a fan to keep you cool, the smell is rancid – it’s absolutely awful.’

The 70-year-old lives with COPD – a group of lung conditions that causes breathing difficulties – and says her doctor has recently upped her medication to save her having to ‘keep calling an ambulance’.

‘[The air pollution] has not caused my COPD, but it damn well is not helping it,’ Pauline said. ‘It’s making it worse. Living here is shortening my life.

‘I’m just very tearful and fed up the whole time. I’m not enjoying my own home anymore.’

Catherine Newton, who is an admin of the Launders Lane Crisis Facebook group, said: ‘People have had enough and people are very very angry. You can’t blame them.

‘It’s like living in a Chernobyl fall out zone.’

Some neighbours have likened their experience to ‘living in a Chernobyl fall out zone’

In response to views that the council is not doing enough, Councillor Gillian Ford, deputy leader of the council, said: ‘We completely understand and sympathise with residents’ concerns.

‘We continue to push the landowner to take more urgent action and recently facilitated a meeting between the landowner, London Fire Brigade and other experts along with a resident representative to explore what short/medium term measures could be put in place to reduce the occurrence/impact of the fires.’

A statutory nuisance abatement notice and a community protection warning has been given to Arnold’s Field landowner DMC (Essex) Limited, the council has previously said.

But the company has appealed against the abatement notice and the authority said it is waiting on a date for this to be heard in court.

DMC (Essex) Limited’s co-owner Jerry O’Donovan told the LDRS last year that his company takes its responsibilities ‘very seriously’ and claimed he has been ‘in dialogue’ with Havering Council for a number of years.