We live next to a former landfill and feel like prisoners in our own home: residents at ‘breaking point’ after fires left ash raining down on gardens and a ‘rancid’ smell spreading through their properties

Residents living near a former landfill site feel like ‘prisoners’ in their own homes after summer fires regularly ‘rain’ ash on their houses.

Locals fear a ‘health crisis’ is developing in parts of Rainham, Essex, where homeowners are greeted by ‘rancid’ smells as they leave for work in the morning.

An estimated ‘30,000 to 40,000 cubic metres’ of unregulated waste was dumped at Arnold’s Field, in Launders Lane, more than a decade ago.

The ongoing fires at the site have left local residents at their wits’ end and feeling that the air quality – and their health – is only getting worse.

Christine Read, a former foster carer who moved to the area with her son three years ago, said: ‘My back garden looks out onto Launders Lane and the smoke just comes through the park into my garden.

Smoking of waste from the landfill, causing an unbearable stench for the locals

Christine Read says she feels ‘like a prisoner’ in her own home because of the waste

‘Everything has to be locked down and I’m like a prisoner.’

About 18 months ago, Mrs Read was diagnosed with lung cancer. An even greater tragedy followed when her dog was diagnosed with the same disease.

Mrs Read had to put her pet to sleep in what she described as ‘absolutely awful’. She said: ‘That’s why my son feels so guilty [for moving them].

“I feel like I’m sitting here waiting to die.”

Last year, Havering Council was warned about the ‘potential risks to human health’ posed by Arnold’s Field after a study found it contained carcinogenic chemicals.

Havering Council was warned of the ‘potential risks to human health’ more than 12 years ago

The local authority recently published a report on the number of cancer cases in residents of the Arnold’s Field area compared with residents of Havering or England as a whole.

It found that rates of lung cancer, brain tumours and haematological cancers (such as leukaemia) among people living near Launders Lane were similar to those in Havering as a whole, although the data analysed only extended up to 2020.

Residents near the landfill complain of sore throats and runny noses as a result of the landfill. A smaller health survey of residents found that 94 percent of them experience these symptoms.

Pauline Claridge, 70, who lives in Eastwood Drive, about a mile from Launders Lane, said she was ‘fed up’. She said: ‘The last three weeks it has reduced me to tears because it’s just unbearable.

“It’s hot, you have to close your windows and turn on a fan to stay cool. The smell is rancid, it’s really awful.”

Ms Claridge, who suffers from COPD, a lung condition that causes breathing problems, says her doctor recently increased her medication so she wouldn’t have to keep ‘calling an ambulance’.

‘[The air pollution] ‘didn’t cause my COPD, but it sure as hell doesn’t help,’ Pauline said. ‘It makes it worse. Living here shortens my life.

“I’m just really tearful and drunk all the time. I don’t enjoy my own home anymore.”

Some neighbors have compared their experience to ‘living in a Chernobyl zone’

Meanwhile, Catherine Newton, an administrator of the Launders Lane Crisis Facebook group, said: ‘People have had enough and people are very angry. You can’t blame them.

“It’s like living in a radioactive Chernobyl zone.”

Councillor Gillian Ford, deputy leader of the council, said: “We fully understand and sympathise with residents’ concerns.

‘We continue to urge the landowner to take more urgent action and recently held a meeting between the landowner, London Fire Brigade and other experts, together with a representative of the residents. We wanted to explore what short- and medium-term measures could be taken to reduce the number and impact of fires.’

The council has previously stated that a statutory nuisance notice and a community protection warning have been issued to DMC (Essex) Limited, owner of the Arnold’s Field estate.

However, the company has appealed the notice of reduction and the authority has said it is awaiting a date for the case to be heard in court.

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