Dagenham And Rainham MP Secures Important Legacy Landfill Study In Parliament.

In light of the ongoing issues at Launders Lane, Rainham, earlier this year Margaret Mullane, the Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham, put in a request to the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) to commission a piece of research into the impact of legacy landfill on communities and the environment. The application was successful, and POST are now seeking contributions to provide study evidence.

Contributions can be submitted here: https://post.parliament.uk/approved-work-management-of-legacy-landfill-pollution/

Margaret Mullane told that Havering Daily: “My aim is to get a national level solution to the ongoing situation at Launders Lane. I have already brought together a growing number of MPs with landfill issues and am awaiting a meeting with the Minister, but this research commission will add weight and clarity to the problem nationally. Rainham isn’t the only place with landfill related issues. This research will give me, and other representatives across the country, a concrete foundation of evidence to ask questions of the government. 

“To ensure the commission relates specifically to the issues faced at Launders Lane I encourage all residents and stakeholders to make a contribution.”

The study will take evidence and be conducted with academic rigour, and it is likely to be finalised and produced early in 2026.

Margaret added: “I believe this could be important in not only casting a light on the impacts on public health from landfill sites, but also in how to effectively remediate them.

“Residents in Rainham have endured years of misery, stress and respiratory problems due to historic landfill criminality, with precious little attention during those years from the people in control of Havering Council. I have become frustrated over this last year – we believed that the landowner was going to make progress with his planning application, but so far that has not materialised, and the underground fires continue to burn.

“That is why I have been working in parliament to get a national focus on the issue. I hope that commissioning this study will be a breakthrough moment, providing a steer for the government to address legacy landfill sites nationally, to resolve our troubles locally.”

Find out more about the POST study here: https://post.parliament.uk/approved-work-management-of-legacy-landfill-pollution/

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