Councillor urges action on waste sites after fires

Councillor Simon Ball has written to the council’s leadership calling for stronger local enforcement, clearer public accountability, and urgent lobbying of central government to secure more resources for early intervention and fire prevention. He says the safety of residents must take priority, and that the council cannot afford to be passive in the face of continued risk.

Rotherham Council, however, says it is already working closely with partner agencies to identify and manage sites of concern, and that responsibility for regulating waste lies primarily with the Environment Agency. A spokesperson said the authority continues to fully exercise its own powers and is committed to supporting residents’ safety.

Figures from the Environment Agency reveal that 99 industrial waste operations are currently registered as active in Rotherham. These include vehicle dismantlers, metal recyclers, and waste transfer stations, all of which are regulated under environmental permits due to their potential risks. Coun Ball said the sheer number of sites highlighted the scale of the challenge and made it clear that more must be done at a local level to prevent future disasters.

“There’s a lot of industrial fires, especially at recycling plants, and it’s continuous,” he said. “They take three or four days to recover from. So the fire service is there all that time. The disruption to locals, with the windows, the traffic, it just goes on and on. The council needs to up its game.

“All I’m asking for is more investment to stop this from happening – maybe sprinkler systems, maybe more council enforcement to say that you can’t store this amount of rubbish.”

A fire which broke out at a waste site in Kiveton Park in 2022 burned for days, disrupted residents, and raised serious concerns about repeated non-compliance at some sites. While South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue took the lead in responding to the emergency, Coun Ball believes the council has a key role to play in regulation, oversight and ensuring preventative measures are in place.

In his letter to the council, he requested that local bylaws and enforcement powers be reviewed and strengthened, especially in relation to any known high-risk operators. He also called for regular public updates and a clear set of measurable actions to improve site safety.

“I believe we owe it to residents to ensure that every available local mechanism is being used,” he said. “Our residents expect that we use every tool at our disposal to protect their communities, regardless of where responsibility sits at a national level.”

Responding to the concerns, Sam Barstow, Rotherham Council’s assistant director of community safety and street scene, said: “Waste management is subject to a regulatory regime across bodies such as the council and the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency is the regulator for waste in England. Its role is to, where appropriate and possible, investigate and prosecute those responsible for the state of waste sites and in the case of the Kiveton Park site, the 2022 fire.

“The council would be happy to consider using local byelaws, however we have been unable to identify any measures that would likely add value in managing waste sites due to the existence of the regulatory regime.

“Following the Kiveton Park fire, officers have continued to work closely with emergency responders to ensure that waste sites of concern are identified and addressed. Similarly, the council exercises its own powers in relation to regulation fully and will work with partners such as the Environment Agency to seek to ensure their powers are similarly executed.”