Nigel Rock Prospective Parliamentary Candidate raises questions about the landfill site at Ufton

9.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 18th Sep 2007

Nigel Rock Prospective Parliamentary Candidate raises questions about the landfill site at Ufton, arising from the fire that began on Sunday.

The events of the last few hours have caused questions to be asked about emergency planning processes and the use of the landfill site at Ufton. Local Lib Dems Chris Moir and Nigel Rock were concerned about the progress of the blaze during Sunday afternoon. Nigel Rock said "There was a large pall of smoke tracking north eastwards from the site as we viewed it from Southam. Although we knew that the emergency services were in attendance, I was concerned about the possible health effects and would like to have contacted environmental health officers straight away. As it happens, the Environment Agency were in full control of the incident. It took a phone call from me at nine o'clock on Monday morning to alert District Council Environmental Health Officers to the situation."

Chris Moir said "I was about to go to a meeting in Southam on Sunday afternoon, when a standby firefighter asked me directions to the landfill site, apparently reacting to the emergency. I was surprised that although he had a GPS unit, he obviously hadn't been given location details for what is clearly a high risk site within the area. I found this apparent flaw in the system worrying, as speed of response is vital in an emergency. I hope the Conservatives take all the issues raised by this fire into consideration when discussing the future of the already hard working Warwickshire Fire Service. We must try to support our emergency services for the safety of all of us." Nigel Rock said "The fire service seem to have done a great job in a difficult situation - it looked to me that it was well under control, if not extinguished, 24 hours after the start"

Nigel Rock went on to say "Quite often it is local councillors that become aware of incidents, some serious, some not so serious, and we need to look at the mechanism for communicating with Council Staff. I had already raised this issue after the July floods. In this case, I was surprised to find that although some senior people at the District Council were aware of the incident, the environmental health officer with responsibility for the Southam area was not. This goes to show that emergency exercises are all well and good but there is always something to learn from every incident."

In another aspect of the case, the County Council's Press Release reveals something unknown locally; that the Ufton site is apparently accepting waste from Staffordshire. Nigel Rock said "This is a very surprising development. For some time we have known that there is considerable pressure on landfill sites in Warwickshire and to find that this location is receiving waste from such a long distance away is a shock. If the press release is taken at face value, this is bad news for the environment. Why are we transporting waste over such a large distance with all the implications for fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions? Why is South Warwickshire having to take rubbish from elsewhere when we don't have enough disposal sites for our own waste? I have asked County Council officers what conditions were applied to the planning permission, which I had thought was only for local waste."

Notes for editors

As well as being a Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the new constituency of Kenilworth and Southam, Nigel Rock is the District Councillor for Stockton and Napton.

Chris Moir lives in Bishops Itchington and stood as a District Council candidate for the Liberal Democrats last May.

The Ufton landfill site is located between Harbury and Southam and was subject to a fire starting on Sunday afternoon 17 September. Warwickshire County Council and the environment agency have issued press releases giving technical details.

Att: Picture shows Chis Moir (L) & Nigel Rock (R) in front of Southam's recycling collection point.

17 September 2007

Contact:

Nigel Rock

01926 817250

07710 063614

ppc@nigelrock.org.uk

or

nigel.rock@stratford-dc.gov.uk