Toxic historic landfill sites are not being monitored, and many are in flood risk areas.

In May I wrote about the dangers of old landfill sites now that flooding is happening more regularly as a result of climate change. Cllr Joe Otten who is chair of the Sheffield Council Waste Committee promised a reply but I am still waiting. I have now received a long reply from the Environment Agency.

I have published the letter below but it is the spreadsheet that rings alarm bells. The Environment Agency do not monitor the sites, so this is the role of the Council. This Council document explains the Council policy on contaminated sites but it offers little reassurance that sites are monitored. It stresses how expensive an inspection can be, costs which the Council can ill afford. It states “The inspection of Potentially Contaminated Land sites under the Part 2A regime is very resource intensive
for the local authority, in terms of both time and money. DEFRA previously provided a grant system to local authorities, via a bidding system, to finance the investigations. The grant system could also be used by local authorities to remediate sites where no other responsible party could be identified. This scheme was withdrawn in 2013 and no replacement funding mechanism has been provided to enable local authorities to
undertake this work.“

I asked “What assurances can the Environment Agency give that these sites will not leak waste in the event of a flood?”

The Environment Agency says “It is not possible to provide an assessment of the risk posed by polluting materials that might be found within the sites listed in the event of a flood or otherwise. All of the sites listed received their last waste deposit or had their waste licence surrendered or otherwise removed prior to the Environment Agency being established and taking on the responsibility for regulating waste sites from local authorities. In most cases, the information contained within the Historic Landfill Database is all the information we have in our records about these sites. The risk posed by any individual site will vary based on a number of factors, including the exact nature and volume of the waste deposited; the age of the waste deposits and the extent to which biological or chemical processes may have altered their composition; the presence or absence of any pollution control measures such as basal lining or capping of the waste deposits (note that all of these sites pre-date current regulatory requirements as defined by the Landfill Directive which came into effect in 2002); and the proximity and nature of any potential pollution receptors such as rivers or groundwater, among others. It is the responsibility of local authorities to inspect their area to identify where historical contamination might pose a significant risk to people or the environment and you can find out more about how Sheffield City Council manages this responsibility using the link to their Contaminated Land page posted above.

There are 4 local sites that contain special waste and liquid sludge waste that are in flood zones. These are

Site	Surface Water Flood Risk	Flood Risk for planning zone FZ2/3	Known contents
Meadowhall Road, Kimberworth, Rotherham	High	No	Construction, demolition, excavation, soil, sub-soil, oil free non-hazardous industrial sludge, latex sludge, effluent treatment plant sludge, waste treated timbers, plastic manufacturing scrap, dewatered gully emptyings and mechanical sweepings,
Linley Lane, Normanton Springs Sheffield	High	Yes	Excavation, soil, sub-soil, asbestos, difficult, incinerator residues, industrial effluent treatment sludge, clean excavated material, medical, surgical, veterinary, potentially combustible
Beighton Road Tip, Woodhouse, Sheffield, South Yorkshire	High	No	Construction, demolition, excavation, veterinary, clinical, non-hazardous industrial, old cars, vehicles and trailers, sewage, sludge, gully emptyings, difficult, alkalies, alkaline cleaners,
Land East of Rotherham Road / Formerly Beighton Coke Oven Works and Brookhouse Colliery, Rotherham	No	Yes	Non-hazardous industrial and commercial, non-hazardous construction and demolition, excavation, soil, sub-soil, coke oven waste, tar sludge, biological effluent treatment sludge, spent lime.

Linley Lane is of particular concern with its incinerator waste which presumably includes dioxins in the incinerator ash. It also contains asbestos, industrial effluent treatment sludge, medical, surgical, veterinary waste, and potentially combustible waste. I visited myself to take a look and a casual visitor would never guess it was home to such toxicity. Indeed nature is doing its best to reclaim it and nearby I heard blackbirds, wrens, robins, song thrush, chiffchaff, blackcap, goldcrest, wood-pigeon and blue tits.

My intent in writing this article is not to cause unnecessary alarm but to extract an honest reply from the Council about the risks these sites pose in an age when we can expect flooding on a much more regular basis. 

There are a further 17 sites in flood risk areas where the waste is not thought to be so dangerous. (but nobody is sure about this!)

These are

Rocher Quarry Whitelee Lane, Ewden

Townend Tip Deepcar, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Greaves Lane Tip High Green, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Former Quarry off Haggstones Road Haggstones Road, Oughtibridge, Sheffield

Butterthwaite Lane Ecclesfield

230 Sheffield Road Tinsley, Sheffield

Fox Hagg Farm Land to the West of Lodge Lane, Rivelin, Sheffield

Parkwood Road / Club Mill Road Sheffield 3

British Steel Corporation Tinsley Park Works, Shepcote Lane, Sheffield

Waverley East Opencast Coal Site Land Off Highfield Lane, Orgreave, Rotherham

Douglas / Parkwood Landfill Site Off Longley Avenue West, Shirecliffe, Sheffield

Parkwood Landfill Parkwood Springs, Parkwood Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Loadfield Lane Quarry Load Field Lane, High Bradfield

More Hall Tip Deepcar, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Elkington Road Tip Elkington Road, Beighton, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Myers Lane Tip Loxley, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Skew Hill Quarry Grenoside, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

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Here is the letter in full.

Dear Graham Wroe,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 8 May 2025, regarding 250509/OC03 Landfill sites near Sheffield.

We respond to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).

Please find attached a spreadsheet which is an extract from the Environment Agency’s Historic Landfill Database showing the 26 historic landfill sites wholly or in part located within the Sheffield local authority area and which are listed as having accepted ‘Special Waste’ or ‘Liquid Sludge’. We believe that these are the 26 sites to which you refer in your information request. The full Historic Landfill Database is publicly available on the gov.uk website via this link: Historic Landfill Sites.

To respond to your questions in turn:

1. How frequently do the Environment Agency monitor these sites? If they don’t, does anyone else monitor them?

The Environment Agency does not monitor these sites as they no longer have an Environmental Permit and so are no longer subject to our regulation. In most cases, historic landfill sites will be entered onto the Register of Contaminated Land, which it is the responsibility of the local authority, in this case Sheffield City Council, to maintain. You can find out more about how Sheffield City Council manage contaminated land here: Contaminated land | Sheffield City Council. In some cases the Environment Agency has a role to play in managing contaminated land when a site is designated as a Special Site, but this is not applicable in any of the cases under discussion here. You can find a public database of contaminated land special sites here: Contaminated Land Special Sites – data.gov.uk.

1. What assurances can the Environment Agency give that these sites will not leak waste in the event of a flood?

It is not possible to provide an assessment of the risk posed by polluting materials that might be found within the sites listed in the event of a flood or otherwise. All of the sites listed received their last waste deposit or had their waste licence surrendered or otherwise removed prior to the Environment Agency being established and taking on the responsibility for regulating waste sites from local authorities. In most cases, the information contained within the Historic Landfill Database is all the information we have in our records about these sites. The risk posed by any individual site will vary based on a number of factors, including the exact nature and volume of the waste deposited; the age of the waste deposits and the extent to which biological or chemical processes may have altered their composition; the presence or absence of any pollution control measures such as basal lining or capping of the waste deposits (note that all of these sites pre-date current regulatory requirements as defined by the Landfill Directive which came into effect in 2002); and the proximity and nature of any potential pollution receptors such as rivers or groundwater, among others. It is the responsibility of local authorities to inspect their area to identify where historical contamination might pose a significant risk to people or the environment and you can find out more about how Sheffield City Council manages this responsibility using the link to their Contaminated Land page posted above.

1. Which of these sites are also in a high flood-risk area?

We have added to the Historic Landfill Database extract in the attached spreadsheet two columns providing summary information about flood risk, which are highlighted yellow for ease of reference. The first column shows the highest risk rating (of None, Low, Medium or High) to which any part of the site is subject for flooding from surface waters, and the second column shows whether any part of the site is within Flood Zones 2 or 3 as shown on the publicly available Flood Risk for Planning. Land within Flood Zone 2 has been assessed as having an annual risk of flooding between 0.1% and 1%, and land within Flood Zone 3 has been assessed as having an annual risk of flooding of more than 1%. Please note that the risk rating in these two columns may only apply to a very small fraction of the site in question; the column shows the highest risk rating applicable to any part of the site but in most cases the majority of the site is subject to a lower risk rating or none at all. You can find more information about flood risk for any location using the Flood Map for Planning service at gov.uk: Get flood risk information for planning in England – Flood map for planning – GOV.UK.

Please refer to the Open Government Licence which explains the permitted use of this information.

Rights of appeal

If you are not satisfied with our decision, you can contact us within two calendar months to ask for the decision to be reviewed. We will then conduct an internal review of our response to your request and give you our decision in writing within 40 working days.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can then make an appeal to the Information Commissioner Office, the statutory regulator for EIR and FOI. The address is: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.