Legal battle lost to stop tipping at rubbish dump

A council has lost its legal battle to end waste tipping at a rubbish dump in Wakefield.

Operators at Welbeck Landfill Site lodged an appeal when its planning application to continue dumping material at the site until the end of 2025 was rejected by councillors in November 2023.

The council decision meant that tipping would have ceased on 31 December 2023.

However, following a five-day public inquiry the Planning Inspectorate has upheld the appeal, meaning dumping can continue and Wakefield Council has been ordered to pay the waste company's legal costs.

In November 2023, the council's planning and highways committee rejected Welbeck Waste Management Ltd's (WWML) application to continue tipping at the site for two extra years.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the company said it needed more time to fill the remaining capacity at the tip due to a reduction in the amount of materials going to landfill.

Reasons given by the council for refusal included the impact of the tip on local residents and biodiversity.

The site, which has been in operation for almost three decades, is due to be transformed into a country park when the tip closes.

Landfill sites expert John Martin told the inquiry that shutting the site in its current state would leave a "ravine-like feature" which would create a long-term pollution risk.

He said best practice would be to fill the remaining void to create a "raised dome" to allow rainfall run-off.

Planning inspector Jason Whitfield allowed the appeal in a decision published on Friday.

Mr Whitfield said: "I am satisfied that the extension of time would not result in harm to ecology or local residents, and the proposals can be suitably controlled both through the conditions imposed on the planning permission and through the permitting regime overseen by the Environment Agency."

The inspector said further work at the site was "necessary in order to achieve the restoration of the site without causing harmful environmental effects".

WWML's claim for full costs against the council was also upheld, as Mr Whitfield agreed there had been "unreasonable behaviour and wasted expense".

A financial report last September forecast the council's own legal costs for the appeal to be £200,000.

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