Fresh Start for Rainham as Residents Help Shape New Response After Landfill Fire Fears

1st April 20261st April 2026 Francesca Lilleystone 0 Comments Fires, Health, Rainham min read

Rainham residents have helped kickstart a fresh, community-led approach to tackling long-running landfill fire concerns at a special workshop held on Friday 27 March.

The “Coffee Morning Pop-Up Workshop” at Rainham Hall, hosted by SHAPE Health from Queen Mary University of London, brought together local people to share their experiences and shape what happens next.

The event marks a positive new chapter for the community, putting residents’ voices at the heart of efforts to better understand and respond to the impact of fires linked to Arnolds Field on nearby neighbourhoods.

For years, people living around Launders Lane have faced repeated smoke events and ongoing concerns about air quality and health. Friday’s session created a welcoming space to turn those experiences into action and to start building solutions together.

Arundi Mahendran, Founding Director of SHAPE Institute for Health at Queen Mary University of London, said: “This is about a new way of working, where local knowledge really counts. By listening first, we can start to build practical solutions with the community, not just for the community.”

Among those at the session was Taslima Khatun, a 35-year-old mother of two children aged one and two. She moved to the area two years ago and is worried about her children’s health.

She said: “It is extremely important that people in the community come together, that they share their experiences, because something like this particular issue, it’s affecting our daily lives, it’s affecting our mental health as well as our physical health.

“Today gives me hope that things are being done and that people are listening. To look at the residents, give the residents a voice, let them speak about their experiences, share their experiences and how it’s affecting them.”

John Robins, 70, has lived in the area for 64 years. He was also at the session and said: “Four men I know use the local pub, they’ve all had prostate cancer diagnosed within four months of each other. The landlord had lung cancer, his wife had oesophagus cancer which she died from. The neighbour next door to me, his wife died last year of cancer and he’s got cancer and we all live within a similar distance [200 yards] from the site.

“Coming along to events like this where you see other people have experienced similar impacts on their lives and [seeing] people, special people getting involved, it does give you hope that something’s going to be done.”

The workshop is the first step in a wider project that will bring residents, researchers and local partners together over the coming months. Plans include the development of a new “Rainham Observatory”, a community-led initiative designed to combine local insight with environmental data to improve how issues are understood and addressed.

Further workshops are now being planned, with local people continuing to play a central role in shaping a healthier future for Rainham.

The Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham-Margaret Mullane MP told the Havering Daily:

“I have been working with Queen Mary University London’s SHAPE health team for several months on their Rainham community engagement plans to really uncover how the pollution from Launders Lane has affected the health and lives of people.

The two sessions last week at Rainham Hall held by the QMUL team have started that process with the local community. I was incredibly impressed by the points raised by residents and saddened by some of the personal accounts of health conditions that are being suffered. I hope that as many local people as possible take part in the research over coming months.

I greatly welcome this work and their research will be invaluable in getting a national focus on Launders Lane and the health impacts from all historic landfill sites. I will make sure that Parliament hears this and that action results.“

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