Essex County Council are now actively considering re-submitted plans to build on Crumps Farm, a former landfill site in Little Canfield, Essex.
The planning application now includes a giant Data Centre – proposed to be 10,240 square metres or the equivalent of all of the retail space at Stansted Airport’s terminal building. The ex-landfill site is located close to hundreds of new homes being developed in North Dunmow and around Little Canfield.
Environment Agency staff estimate that some 500,000 tonnes of waste has been illegally dumped at Crumps Farm since 2019, alongside a legal landfill dating back to the 1980s, making it one of the largest fly-tipped dumps in the country. The rubbish continues to leak chemicals into the River Roding and surrounding environment. Local farmers in Great Canfield have reported changes to their soil and lower crop yields in the fields closest the landfill.
The consultation period is from 14th October until 15th November and residents are urged to send in their comments to Essex County Council.
What can you do?
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Visit the Little Canfield Parish Council website and make use of the supporting information on objection points
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Write a comment and email it to mineralsandwasteDM@essex.gov.uk
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Include the details of the two planning applications for the Crumps Farm site: ESS/16/24/UTT/OUT and ESS/16/24/UTT
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Comments cannot be anonymous
Chair of Little Canfield Parish Council, Cllr Sarah Warnes said:
“We must make sure that local people’s views are properly represented in the planning process and their feelings on this new proposals are made clear.
“The Parish Council is objecting to construction on this site as it is considered contaminated and has toxic keep out signs around part of the perimeter. The Environment Agency should fence the whole site for public safety immediately.
“We can’t let Essex County Council and the Environment Agency off the hook here by these planning applications gaining approval. Essex County Council should have rejected the original plans last year – but they did not. The Environment Agency needs to do more to prosecute the illegal dumping of half a million tonnes of waste at the site since 2019.
“A Data Centre will heap extra pressure on the local water supply. Residents in the new developments around Dunmow and Little Canfield already experience periods of the day without any water supply. Pressure is appalling and there needs to be serious thought given to a water tower being built at to support supplies to Little Canfield and North Dunmow.”
Chair of Great Canfield Parish Council, Cllr Virginia Barlow said:
“The contamination continues to pour out of this dump and pollutes local farmland in Great Canfield. The Environment Agency tries to maintain that all is safe and well with Crumps Farms – this is clearly not the case.
“I am concerned that the inclusion of a Data Centre in this latest submission is designed to short-circuit the planning system and allow for the proposals to be called into the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and to by-pass Essex County Council and local democracy.
“The principle of preventing development south of the Flitchway, a country park and Local Nature Reserve, has been preserved by the National Planning Inspectorate in recent appeals and previous government Minister has explicitly attempted to protect this landscape from building. This will ride rough shot over local residents concerns for the countryside and wildlife.”