Launders Lane waste dump fires reduce residents to tears

A "health crisis" is unfolding in the areas of Rainham surrounding Arnold's Field, in Launders Lane - a site where an estimated "30,000 to 40,000 cubic metres" of unregulated waste was dumped more than a decade ago.

Frequent smoke from fires in the summer months, ash "raining" on their gardens, and "rancid" smells every time they step out of the house are just some of the things residents have told the Recorder they are having to live with.

But now people in the area are at breaking point, and they feel like the air quality - and their health - is only getting worse.

Pauline Claridge, who lives in Eastwood Drive about a mile away from Launders Lane, said she is "fed up".

Residents have been 'reduced to tears' by the smoke and 'rancid smell' from the nearby field (Image: Christine Read)

She said: "These last three weeks it's reduced me to tears because it's just unbearable.

"It's hot, you have to shut your windows and rely on a fan to keep you cool, the smell is rancid - it's absolutely awful."

The 70-year-old lives with COPD - a group of lung conditions that causes breathing difficulties - and says her doctor has recently upped her medication to save her having to "keep calling an ambulance".

"[The air pollution] has not caused my COPD, but it damn well is not helping it," Pauline said. "It's making it worse.

"Living here is shortening my life.

"I'm just very tearful and fed up the whole time.

"I'm not enjoying my own home anymore."

Ash falls in the gardens of those who live near Launders Lane after fires there (Image: Christine Read)

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported last year that Havering Council was warned about the "potential risks to human health" from Arnold's Field more than 12 years ago, after a survey of the site found evidence of substances such as lead and benzo(a)pyrene - a large group of carcinogens.

Delays have impacted efforts to further investigate the health risks of living near Launders Lane, including data protection issues with collecting NHS data.

The latest update from the council is that findings based on NHS data will be published in the "near future" to see if residents present with respiratory issues during or immediately after a fire.

Meanwhile residents are left feeling "like prisoners" in their own homes and like "nobody cares" about what they are going through.

Christine Read, who lives in Acer Avenue with her son, told the Recorder: "My back garden faces Launders Lane, and the smoke just comes right across the park and into my garden."

Christine Read moved to Rainham about three years ago (Image: Christine Read)

She explained that if she did not close her patio doors the smoke would come into her house.

"Everything has to be locked up and I'm like a prisoner," Christine said.

The former foster carer has lived in Rainham for three years, and when she first moved from Dagenham to live with her son she worked outside for a year "constantly" to help tidy up the garden.

Around 18 months later Christine was diagnosed with lung cancer and since then so has her dog.

Christine had to put her pet down, which she said was "absolutely horrendous".

"Since that, my son feels so guilty [for moving them]," Christine said. "And I feel as if I'm just sitting here waiting to die."

Havering Council recently published a health impact report looking into the incidences of cancer in residents near to the Arnold's Field site when compared with Havering residents or England as a whole.

Smoke spotted in the air over the nearby Spring Farm Park (Image: Lisa Woolnough)

The report found that there were similar rates of lung cancer, brain cancer and haematological cancers (such as leukaemias) amongst those living near Launders Lane as in Havering as a whole - although the data analysed only went as far as 2020.

A poll on the Launders Lane Crisis Facebook group at the end of July this year found that more than half of residents in the area said they are suffering from sore throats and runny noses due to the landfill, while a smaller health survey conducted by residents in August showed that 94 per cent are experiencing these symptoms.

READ MORE: Arnold's Field, Launders Lane Rainham owner appeals nuisance notice

Catherine Newton, who helped to carry out the August health survey at an event at Tesco Rainham and is an admin of the Launders Lane Crisis Facebook group, told the Recorder: "People have had enough and people are very very angry. You can't blame them.

"It's like living in a Chernobyl fall out zone."

In response to views that the council is not doing enough, Councillor Gillian Ford, deputy leader of the council, said: "We completely understand and sympathise with residents' concerns.

"We continue to push the landowner to take more urgent action and recently facilitated a meeting between the landowner, London Fire Brigade and other experts along with a resident representative to explore what short/medium term measures could be put in place to reduce the occurrence/impact of the fires."

A statutory nuisance abatement notice and a community protection warning has been given to Arnold's Field landowner DMC (Essex) Limited, the council has previously said.

But the company has appealed against the abatement notice and the authority said it is waiting on a date for this to be heard in court.

DMC (Essex) Limited's co-owner Jerry O’Donovan told the LDRS last year that his company takes its responsibilities “very seriously” and claimed he has been “in dialogue” with Havering Council for a number of years.