Skegness' toxic secret

National World

Skegness is leading the way by exploring the risks historic landfill sites may pose to communities. Plastics polution campaigner and   Coastline Runner Luke Douglas-Home explains why.

Transcript

00:00Luke, why are you addressing Skegness Town Council about historic landfill sites?

00:10Because it must be mandatory that every council looks after the public health of their residents

00:20and the health of our environment. And these landfill sites, of which there are 20,000

00:29in this country, pose a real risk now—increased risk—with the effects of climate change,

00:39make them more vulnerable to releasing terrible toxins, not just when construction developments

00:46happen but just naturally anyhow. And so it must be mandatory that councils assess their

00:59risk, of which Skegness Town Council have done that with this so-called ISRA, the Initial

01:06Site Risk and Responsibility Audit, the ISRA that we do them. And so I think Skegness is

01:16one of the councils leading, really leading the way on this, in that Lewes Council has

01:24supported law change on this with Zem's Law, and three other councils have done this ISRA.

01:32And Skegness are forward-thinking because this is in front of time, before it becomes

01:39mandatory, which I predict within five years it will be mandatory for every council to

01:45do.

01:46So do you know how many historic sites there are in Skegness or in East Lindsay, which

01:53sometimes you can only get district figures, can't you?

01:58Yes. There are five known sites in Skegness boundaries. And the aim of this ISRA was threefold.

02:21To provide an initial audit of risk and responsibility, who's responsible for the risk that is there.

02:30And secondly, is to start a calculation to help the prioritisation of what to do about

02:37this risk. And thirdly, is to offer so-called RMS, Recommended Next Steps, of which there

02:48But this will all be discussed next week with Skegness Town Council, and I just commend

02:55them on taking this first step and front-running, because every council will have to do this

03:02within a few years.

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