Residents voice concerns over quarry dumps

FOR months, residents of the tiny villages of Hampole and Skelbrooke, on the border between Doncaster and Wakefield, have been uneasy about operations at a former quarry near their homes.

They watched as lorries brought in trailers full of a substance called Sterefibre and took photographs as the pile of material grew and was then bulldozed flat ready for further deliveries.

Residents claim they have suffered a “foul” smell, which has intensified as the volume of the fibre has increased, and say they have continually asked for someone to explain to them what is happening.

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The chairman of the local parish council, Nick Balliger, eventually carried out his own research and discovered the material was made from thousands of tonnes of processed household and commercial waste.

The Sterefibre is being stockpiled at the Hazel Lane quarry, which is now a licensed landfill site, and Mr Balliger said concerns had grown the fibre was in fact more harmful than regular rubbish.

Questions have also been raised about why the fibre, which was supposed to be used as a soil substitute, has ended up at a landfill site at all, because it is sold as an alternative to burying rubbish.

According to the marketing of its inventors, Rotherham-based Sterecycle, the fibre is an “exciting development” but the company has struggled to get a licence to sell it as a soil substitute or improver.

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The spotlight of official scrutiny has only turned after it was discovered the operation did not have permission, but Mr Balliger said he hoped some of the community’s questions would now be answered.

The former steelworks manager said: “You have got hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material that is supposed to be avoiding landfill, but there it is, just sitting in a landfill site.

“And it is not just that – conventional rubbish is a known quantity, but this is processed, and none of the authorities seems able to say if it is harmful to health, groundwater or the environment.

“We don’t see how it could be used as a soil substitute because it appears to contain small pieces of glass and plastic shards and there are worries that it contains unstable chemical compounds.

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“This stuff really stinks. If you are downwind of it after five or 10 minutes you feel really ill. It is a mixture of a rotting smell and a chemical smell – there is nothing else like it.”

Sterecycle stores the fibre indoors at its plant in Rotherham as a condition of its planning consent for its factory but no such restrictions exist at present at the Hampole quarry site, which is owned by their contractor, Cat Plant.

Coun Jonathan Wood represents Hampole on Doncaster Council and sits on the authority’s planning committee which recently ordered Sterecycle to stop its operations at the quarry site. He said residents had “every right to feel let down”.

He said that in light of the fact the waste was supposed to be diverted from landfill, he would call for a “thorough re-examination” of the way the council negotiated its waste contracts in future.

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The situation with Sterecycle puts Doncaster Council in a difficult position, because it sends 25 per cent of its residual waste to Sterecycle to be treated, reducing its liability for landfill taxes.

If the operation was stopped immediately, officers would struggle to find another company to take on the contract.

The authority’s director of environment Peter Dale said in response to inquiries about the operation: “We issued a stop notice for the site on August 17 following a request from planning committee.

“This was withdrawn on August 19 before it came into effect. The decision was taken by chief executive Rob Vincent because of legal issues but will be reconsidered when we have looked at this issue further.

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“Cat Plant do not currently have planning permission to store Sterefibre on their site, but are free to appeal the committee’s recent decision. They can also resubmit an application addressing the concerns.

“In the meantime, we are committed to working with the owners of the site and the Environment Agency on a way forward.

“On August 17 we issued an enforcement notice giving Sterecycle and Cat Plant six months to stop moving Sterefibre onto the site and to remove the existing stockpiles. This notice remains in force.”