PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Fires: Merton (4 October 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Environment Agency's response to the fire at the Weir Road recycling centre on Saturday 7 September 2024.

Asked by:
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour)

The Environment Agency are responsible for the regulation of the environmental permit held by Reston Waste Management at 77 Weir Road. After being notified of the fire late on Saturday 7 September by the London Fire Brigade (LFB), Environment Agency staff worked throughout the weekend with LFB to review potential impacts to air, land and water. As the incident continued, the Environment Agency provided advice to LFB and London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth regarding impacts to the environment and maintained input via multi-agency meetings. Environment Agency staff attended the site on Tuesday 10th September following a large number of complaints about the smoke from the fire. Their attendance ensured that waste was being managed appropriately and no longer causing a discharge to enter the River Wandle.

Officers from the Environment Agency are in regular contact with the Cllrs in Merton and Wandsworth whose Wards were affected by the fire, along with officers from those boroughs. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Environment Agency, alongside those partners. They will be working with the fire brigade to understand the cause of the fire, and the reasons why it took so long to extinguish. The London Borough of Merton is leading a formal multi-agency review of the incident and the Environment Agency will feed into this review. Alongside this, the Environment Agency is assessing the actions taken by Restons Waste Management, to understand if any more could have reasonably been done to prevent or mitigate the effects of the fire.

Answered by:
Mary Creagh (Labour)
10 October 2024