Legal discussions ongoing as boreholes drilled at Droppingwell

The environmental permit granted to Grange Landfill Ltd required eight shafts to be dug to monitor groundwater and five for gas.

The work was delayed by several weeks in October after police were called to the Kimberworth site over a row about access.

Rotherham Borough Council tried to argue that Grange Landfill’s contractors did not have right of access to carry out the initial drilling.

The Environment Agency, which issued the permit, did not respond to the Advertiser’s request for a comment.

But an update newsletter, which it sent to residents living near the site, said the delays to the engineering work had been resolved.

It added: “The operator will be installing eight groundwater monitoring boreholes around the perimeter of the site to establish groundwater levels, direction of flow and the current quality of the groundwater.

“The operator will also be installing five gas monitoring boreholes in the existing waste mass. 

“These are required as part of their Environment Permit to check whether the historically deposited waste is producing any landfill gas.

“Any waste excavated during this work will be removed from the site. 

“The operator will be having these wastes analysed and the results will be provided to the Environment Agency.”

More than 1,500 people have signed a petition against the tip since news of the permit emerged in the summer.

The land was first used for dumped waste in 1958 but permission was violated in the 80s when asbestos was dumped. 

A public inquiry in 1992 ruled that the land should be left to nature.

Mick Marshall, welfare officer for neighbouring football club Millmoor Juniors, said: “You would think the environmental testing work would be done in a sensitive manner given the public outcry in opposition to the proposed landfill operation. 

“But there’s a complete disregard of the landscape, with no safety barriers erected to protect the public from overland vehicles and churned up fields with tracks so deep that they dwarf my dog.

“The landscape now looks like a scene from the Somme during the First World War.”

Pete Cowen, who runs the nearby Peter Cowen Golf Academy, said: “The old tip, which is now capped off, is apparently still in the top ten toxic tips in the country, so those toxins are still coming off that tip now. 

“If we get another one then we’ve got a double whammy. 

“It shouldn’t happen, not in residential areas.”

The council said this week that legal discussions were ongoing.

A public meeting about the tip scheme will be held at Winterhill School on Thursday at 6pm.