Government’s failure to plan for new European hazardous waste regulations means the South East has nowhere in the region to process its own hazardous waste, according to a stark message from the South East England Regional Assembly’s Planning Committee Chairman Keith Mitchell.

Urgent action is needed to create the necessary facilities for the treatment and disposal of waste classified as ‘hazardous’.

Under the new rules, the number of UK landfill sites that accept hazardous waste has fallen from around 200 to less than 20. All landfill sites will now have to be categorised as inert, non hazardous or hazardous.

The regeneration of contaminated sites, for example in the Thames Gateway, will be very costly and without any hazardous classified processing sites in the South East, Developers will have to seek alternative methods of managing this material.

Cllr Keith Mitchell said: “It is disappointing that so little effective progress has been made to date with managing hazardous waste under the new regulations. The government should have seen the problem coming. It has had plenty of time to put an effective programme in place. It now needs to encourage and help the private sector to invest in new facilities to manage hazardous waste."

"There has been unacceptable delay and complacency in government circles and a tendency to blame others. This must stop if we are to avoid another ‘fridge mountain' fiasco."

Action plan

The Assembly has drawn up a six-point action plan on the way forward. It will assist by:

• Calling on government to prepare a contingency plan with emergency funding to manage unavoidable short-term impacts, including the need to subsidise on-site treatment schemes
• Urging government to create a public information programme
• Calling on government and its agencies to make sure rules against unauthorised dumping are enforced
• Producing plans on the number and location of hazardous waste sites needed
• Planning guidance to protect landfill capacity for hazardous waste
• Encouraging development of new treatment capacity