For two years the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group (LGA Coastal SIG), in partnership with the Coastal Group Network (CGN) have been working together under a “call to arms” to better understand the challenge of coastal landfill and its impact on the coast.

This summer they circulated a survey to their membership to understand the scale of this issue.  A report on the findings of the survey has now been released and the results are ringing alarm bells.

The report states that the findings from 26 coastal councils highlighted that some sites are already spilling large amounts of waste onto cliffs and beaches, 75% of coastal landfill sites are next to at least one environmentally designated site and there are significant gaps in understanding of what waste is present within these sites.

Hidden silent ticking time bombs

Cllr Laws, Member Champion for Coastal Landfill at LGA Coastal SIG and Torridge District Councillor said that “with global warming and rising sea levels these [landfill sites] are now hidden silent ticking time bombs.”

He went on to say that the coastal landfill sites are “vast areas of rubbish deposited on low lying coastal and estuary sites, not suitable to be built on, so an easy target for the disposal of vast quantiles of toxic rubbish, buried, hidden away, laying fallow for years.” 

The risk to coastal landfill sites from flooding or erosion have been widely acknowledged for some time. Mark Stratton, Coastal Manager at Coastal Partners and Officer Lead for Coastal Landfill at the LGA Coastal SIG said that “There are hundreds of coastal landfill sites at risk of tidal flooding and erosion. I truly hope that this matter gets the attention from government that it deserves to avoid environmental catastrophe’. 

£30m needed per site

The Report further supports recent work by Queen Mary University of London. Professor Kate Spencer, who led the research said “For many coastal landfills the best approach may be to maintain coastal defences, but we also need to develop sustainable approaches to remediate, relocate or recycle landfilled waste. This will all require significant funding”. The Report found that some respondents estimated that the life costs of work needed would be over £30 million at each of their sites.  

Cllr Ernest Gibson, Chair of the LGA Coastal SIG highlighted that “Pollution events are happening today and so we, the LGA Coastal SIG, are seeking to explore with councils and government where potential relaxation to funding rules might allow for any identified underspend to be redirected to allow councils to deal with the problems we are facing now. Therefore, we invite government to contact us on this as a matter of urgency”.

A press release can be found here and the full LGA Coastal SIG report can be read here.