Launders Lane Still Burning As Residents Left High And Dry.

By Ruth Kettle-Frisby – Guest Writer and Community Activist

Ruth is passionate about fostering positive change within the local community and regularly contributes insights and stories to The Havering Daily.

Arnolds Field is “still smoking away” according to Rainham residents, who continue to be left high and dry as Havering Council drags its heels on their new decision. 

It’s been a staggering four months since the High Court Judgment that Havering Council’s decision not to designate the land as contaminated was premature, unlawful and based on insufficient evidence. 

Residents are understandably desperate for news, and deserve better in terms of candour and accountability from Havering Council. 

Any new decision will determine the level of appropriate protection residents can expect for their health and wellbeing after what has been deemed “another summer of hell”. 

Furthermore, while it is encouraging to hear confirmation that Launders Lane will feature in the disgracefully overdue Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP), the statutory report in question expired in 2023. 

In spite of Havering’s Director of Planning and Public Protection Helen Oakerbee’s assurance at the Green Forum earlier this year that the AQAP would be with cabinet before summer, autumn is upon us and we are yet to hear further update.

Annual Status Reports for Air Quality (ASR) for 2023 (for 2022 data) and 2025 (for 2024 data) also remain overdue; again, with no updates on their progress.

Meanwhile, having received repeated requests to table a motion for Zane’s Law, there is no evidence to date of any intention on behalf of Havering Council to join the movement across the country for our right to transparency; a clean, healthy environment; and protection from further risk of significant harm amidst this contaminated land crisis under the ‘polluters pay’ principle. . 

Havering Council must step up: at the very least, it must announce its new decision, and to publish all outstanding statutory air quality reports. 

We urge Havering Council to go further: to designate this illegal landfill site as contaminated, and to support Zane’s Law. This would demonstrate political will and solidarity withchildren up and down the country who are disproportionately exposed to toxic air and chemicals, starting with our neighbours in Rainham who live and go to school near Launders Lane.

Ruth Kettle-Frisby

Clear the Air in Havering

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