‘Everything needs to be done and done quickly to stop these fires.’

Margaret Mullane, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Dagenham and Rainham, commented following a packed meeting of concerned Rainham residents at the Rainham Harris Academy last week.The meeting was called to discuss the ongoing underground fires at Arnolds Field, Launders Lane Rainham.

Margaret told the Havering Daily: “The overriding priority above all else is to stop these fires from recurring, everything needs to be done and done quickly to protect the public health across Rainham. 

At the meeting last night we heard that the current landowner wants to progress a planning application for a part development of Arnolds Field but claims that Havering Council is delaying matters. I believe in the interest of getting to the bottom of this and protecting local people’s health there should be a meeting between the Council and the owner about his development plans as quickly as possible. Jon Cruddas and I have today emailed the Leader and Chief Executive of Havering Council to call on them to set up this meeting.”

Margaret added: “I have to say I have considerable doubts about the realism of the plans that were shown at the meeting last night, but let’s see. Let the Council test whether the landowner’s plans properly and safely deal with the extensive contamination underground and whether his plans are realistic.

I believe in the principle that the polluter should pay and I do wonder why the landowner who has been in place since 2018 hasn’t apparently taken any steps to deal with the damaging fires on his land.”

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