We all recognise the devastating impacts of coastal erosion, flooding and pollution across our coastline, however, there has been little acknowledgement of the “hidden silent ticking time bombs” that coastal landfill sites present.
‘I’m pleased to be the Member Champion for this significant national issue. It’s imperative that we must work together collaboratively with government to find solutions to this collective and urgent challenge. The risks of doing nothing are too great to ignore and the potential impacts on the natural environment will be disastrous unless funding can be found to tackle the challenge of former coastal landfill eroding or leaching out onto England’s coastline.’
Cllr Simon Martin, LGA Coastal SIG Member Champion for Coastal Landfill and Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Planning and Development for Fareham Borough Council
“There are hundreds of coastal landfill sites across the UK which are at risk of tidal flooding and erosion. I have visited several of these and continue to be overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. It is quite difficult for me to understand how, despite years of lobbying and the release of the 25 year Environment Plan in 2018, there is still no clear national policy or funding provision to protect these sites from eroding or leaching out onto the often designated natural coastal environment. Many sites around the country are fronted by failing defences or in some cases never had defences in front of them in the first place. I truly hope that this matter gets the attention from government that it deserves in order to avoid environmental catastrophe in the near future“
Mark Stratton, LGA Coastal SIG Officer Lead for Coastal Landfill and Coastal Manager at Coastal Partners
The LGA Coastal SIG strives to work in collaboration with others to raise the profile of issues affecting coastal councils and their communities. Together with the Coastal Group Network, a survey was circulated to our membership to glean an understanding of the situation that they are facing. The information from this survey has been collated to produce the report below which can also be downloaded. For our press release on this issue please click here.