Waste Management Sites

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Westminster Hall

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the impact of waste management sites on local communities.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison.

For nearly three years, the people of Fleetwood have been forced to live with an intolerable smell from the Jameson Road landfill site. They have complained, protested and reported the effects on their health to the council, the Environment Agency, the Government and to me, their Member of Parliament. Over the past two and a half years, the Environment Agency has taken increasingly severe action against the operator of the site. Each time, the operator has breached its permit and acted unlawfully in the process, and still the smell remains. At times recently, it has been worse than ever. In March of this year alone, more than 4,000 complaints were made.

The central point that I wish to make is that this is proof of a broken regulatory system. Residents can make thousands of complaints, and people and businesses can be forced to leave an area because of an operator acting unlawfully, and still they are left breathing the same foul air. If our system cannot prevent that from happening, it is broken. If the regulatory system’s purpose is to record suffering, issue notices and hold meetings, but not to prevent suffering for the local community, its purpose and objectives are the wrong way around. In Fleetwood, it is as simple as this: a private company is making money from stinking out the entire town and damaging livelihoods, breaking the law in the process, while the British state appears too weak, too slow and too broken to stop it.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

As my hon. Friend knows—we have discussed this many times—we in Newcastle-under-Lyme know all about the impact that the idea of profit over people can have on the health and wellbeing of communities such as hers and mine, and about the consequences of landfill sites. She is right to say that this is a case of the state going missing in action. I look forward to working with her to ensure that we get the policies needed to keep our communities safe, our air clean and our people living in the situations we want them to live in.

[Lorraine Beavers]

I agree. I hope that we will get that done—or start the battle to do so—today.

Absurdly, none of the waste is even from Fleetwood. It seems that waste can be transported from across the country to any landfill site that is happy to take it—a form of waste tourism. The waste comes from outside Lancashire, harming people and the environment in the process. Of course, working-class northern communities such as mine are allowed to be collateral damage. This is not just about Fleetwood; communities across the country have found themselves trapped in the same nightmare that we have experienced.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. She may be aware that we have had a plastics recycling facility in my constituency for several years. Only when it opened did we suffer an awful fly infestation across the town, as well as a horrendous odour. It is on a normal industrial estate, but it is immediately next to a residential area. Surely the Environment Agency should have had some sort of involvement in the decision to allow it to open.

[Lorraine Beavers]

My hon. Friend is correct, and I agree with him. I will address that point in my remarks.

Communities across the country have found themselves trapped in the same nightmare that we have experienced: living beside waste sites, making complaint after complaint and discovering that the system is better at documenting their suffering than ending it. People have reported headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, vomiting and breathing difficulties, with some requiring hospital treatment. The prolonged stress is also harming my residents’ mental health. Children do not want to play outside, parents have had to keep the windows shut—even during the recent hot weather—and businesses are losing customers. Some residents are considering leaving the town they have lived in all their lives, while others have already left.

I take this opportunity to raise the case of my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns), who, unfortunately, cannot join us today as she is attending a Select Committee. Her constituents have also had to keep their windows shut and stay indoors because of the awful smell coming from a landfill site. My hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) has constituents who can smell the landfill site in my constituency, as the odour blows across the Wyre estuary to Knott End and Preesall. Nobody should have to live like that, in Fleetwood or anywhere else.

Let me share some of the experiences that residents have reported to me. One wrote to say that the landfill has affected her already severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She feels like a prisoner in her own home; when the smell is at its worst, she cannot leave her house for days on end. Like many in Fleetwood, she moved to the area for the fresh sea air. Instead, she says, it has ruined her life.

Another wrote to say that their family had to leave Fleetwood because of the smell. One member of the family, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, found the additional strain impossible to cope with, and their adult disabled daughter experienced throat irritation and disrupted sleep. They could not put up with it any longer and had to move away. That meant leaving behind their daughter’s established social and support network, registering with a completely new medical team and changing her care package.

Another of my constituents has emphysema. He too moved to Fleetwood for better air, but because of the landfill, he suffers with sore and itchy eyes, has difficulty breathing and feels worse than ever. He asked one simple question: why is this allowed? I ask the Minister the same question. I do not want to hear that it is not allowed, because the fact that the problem continues proves that it is. If a national Government cannot put a stop to it, will the Minister suggest who can? These are not isolated complaints.

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

The issue of enforcement is a serious one. An incinerator in south London has breached its air pollution limits almost 1,000 times in 18 months, but nothing has been done by the EA—no court proceedings, no licence suspension, nothing. A similar plant is planned for my constituency. Does the hon. Member agree that the Government must act now to ensure that all operators—be they water companies or waste management companies—are held to account when they break the rules? How am I meant to assure my constituents that they will be safe from health risks?

[Lorraine Beavers]

I agree.

The problems began following the transfer of ownership from SUEZ to Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates, and the resumption of tipping in January 2024. SUEZ proved that sites like Jameson Road can be operated properly without a detrimental impact on the local community, but across the country more operators are cutting corners and operating outside of the law.

Meanwhile, our enforcement framework has not kept up. It is designed around the assumption that operators will do the right thing, often with local authorities in mind. As we have learned in Fleetwood, we cannot afford to make that assumption any longer. The nature of waste management has changed. Small waste management firms are now operating sites that were previously considered economically unviable. As the Jameson Road debacle suggests, to make such sites profitable, companies are now operating them poorly, breaching the terms to their permits and ignoring planning conditions. Local people are left to bear the brunt of their corner cutting.

The issuing and transferring of environmental permits needs to be more robust. Perhaps a new environmental permit should be issued with each change of ownership. If an economically unviable site has been closed, any prospective operator should surely be asked how they will overcome the financial issues. The way in which operators plan to make a site profitable without cutting corners should be scrutinised, and permits should not be carried over if operators cannot produce credible plans. Instead of the company bearing the burden to run a site properly, the burden has fallen on residents to prove that the operator has no such ability. That demonstrates that the weight of scrutiny in the system is in the wrong place. How does the Minister plan to address that? At present, the regulation is self-evidently ineffective.

As the local Member of Parliament, I meet representatives of the Environment Agency every Friday morning. My team and the wider community have pursued every possible avenue to stop the smell and get the site closed. Over the course of those meetings, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either the Environment Agency does not have sufficient powers to intervene quickly enough, or it is not using the powers it has with the necessary urgency. Which does the Minister think it is? Either explanation demands Government action.

If the Environment Agency lacks the powers to suspend activity before further harm is caused, Parliament must provide such powers. If existing powers are unusable because of legal tests, internal processes or fears of legal challenge, those barriers must be removed. The agency must also have the resources to enforce the law. The issues at Jameson Road have resulted in the Environment Agency needing to pull experts in from all over the country.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this timely and important debate, and for her tireless work on these matters over such a long time. Fourteen years of austerity have meant cuts to important resources in our public services, including the Environment Agency, and those services do not have the funding or resources to undertake the work that is so essential right here, right now. Does she agree?

[Lorraine Beavers]

I agree. I thank the Environment Agency, which has worked tirelessly despite massive staff shortages and everything else. It has worked with me and my community to resolve this problem.

The passing on of responsibility while communities suffer cannot continue. The regulators point to the limits of their powers; the operators point to the weather; Departments point to the regulators. Meanwhile, residents are told to make another complaint and keep filling in their diary sheets. That is how faith in Government is destroyed, especially when that pattern is so recognisable in other aspects of the way the country is run. A private company is making money from stinking out an entire town, damaging people’s health and livelihoods, and the British state has so far been incapable of stopping it. I have dedicated much of my time as an MP to working out why.

The children of Flakefleet primary school understand the injustice. A year ago, they wrote to the Prime Minister and handed a petition into 10 Downing Street. The smell from Jameson Road dominates their life at school, and those pupils believe that when something is clearly wrong, those in power will listen and act. That is why I invited this Prime Minister to come to Fleetwood, and I will be inviting the next one to do so as well.

My constituents are tired. They feel ignored and forgotten. Many believe this situation would never have been allowed to continue for so long in a wealthy commuter town in Surrey, and I agree with them. Working-class communities should not be expected to tolerate lower standards because they have less political and economic power. Fleetwood’s health, dignity and future cannot be treated as less important than the financial interest of the private waste companies. No community should be treated in this way.

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

I will be talking about a waste site in Surrey, where unfortunately we have some very similar issues. I hope the hon. Lady understands that this is a national issue, not one that is confined to certain locations of the United Kingdom.

[Lorraine Beavers]

I apologise for naming Surrey.

The wider enforcement framework must change. Regulators need clear powers to suspend operators quickly, stronger tests of operators’ competence and the ability to consider the cumulative impact of sites on communities. Penalties must change behaviour, rather than become a cost of doing business. The financial consequences must fall on the polluters, and we must make sure that companies cannot take the profits while leaving residents and taxpayers to carry the costs when things go wrong.

We need a system that learns from the crisis in Fleetwood rather than one that waits for the same crisis to unfold elsewhere. A Labour Government should not stand by while private operators profit from the suffering of working-class towns. We were elected to show that government can work and that the state can protect people and stand up to private interests when they cause harm. Jameson Road is a test of that promise. It is also a test of whether we are prepared to fix a national regulatory failure. Reforming the system would show communities across the country that they will not be abandoned when the same failures occur on their doorstep. The next community to face this problem should not have to start from the beginning—keeping diaries, gathering medical evidence and begging regulators to act, while the operators continue to profit. The British state must prove that it is not too broken to stop this.

With that in mind, I have several questions for the Minister. Does she acknowledge that the reality of the situation in Fleetwood is that a private company has made profit through unlawful activity at the expense of the health and wellbeing of an entire town, and that that is unacceptable? Will she commission a full review of the current waste management framework, taking into consideration the following questions. Does the Environment Agency have sufficient powers to take decisive action quickly enough? Is it not fully using the powers it already has? Does the Minister believe that the Environment Agency is adequately resourced, and if not, how will the Government increase its funding to deal with the scale of these challenges? Will she legislate to ensure that new environmental permits must be sought when the ownership of a site changes? How does she plan to address the scrutiny gap, whereby companies do not have to prove their ability to run a site properly before operating it? Fleetwood needs action, communities across Britain need protection and this country needs a regulatory system that puts people before polluters.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Lorraine Beavers]

Thank you for your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I also thank all hon. Members who have spoken and intervened, and the Minister for her response.

I again pay tribute to the tireless campaigners who have never given up in their struggle against Transwaste’s disdain for our community. Over the coming months, I will keep pushing in Parliament for the closure of that site once and for all, and for the enforcement needed to tackle the epidemic of waste crime across this country.

I will work with the new Prime Minister to ensure that working-class communities such as mine and his are no longer an afterthought for those in Westminster. Delivering on issues as fundamental as this is a mission of the Labour Government; it is a test of our ability to change things for the better. I came into politics to fight for justice at every level. Social and environmental justice are part of the same struggle, and I will not stop fighting until we deliver both for the British people.

Question put and agreed to. 

Resolved,

That this House has considered the impact of waste management sites on local communities.

Waste Crime: Knowsley

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Anneliese Midgley]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which will come as a surprise to no one. Yes, I know that Labour’s waste-crime action plan addresses many of the concerns that he has raised, and I am sure that the Minister will go into that in more detail in her response.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

Fleetwood stinks again today, but the Jameson Road landfill site still has not been closed. After 14 years of Conservative cuts to all our public services, bodies such as the Environment Agency are on their knees. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Environment Agency desperately needs more boots on the ground to take on the criminals who care nothing for our communities or our planet?

[Anneliese Midgley]

I know that my hon. Friend has done such hard work for her constituency of Blackpool North and Fleetwood in campaigning on this. We are working closely together on this issue, and I absolutely agree: a big part of the problem is about the resources and enforcement powers of the Environment Agency, which, again, Labour’s waste plan will go some way to addressing. I am sure the Minister will respond to us with more detail about that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General]

The hon. Lady will be well aware that we are not removing jury trials; they will remain a cornerstone of this justice system. The reality is that the vast majority of cases heard in this country—90%—are not heard by a jury, so it is wrong to say that we are getting rid of jury trials. Some cases involving sentences that are expected to be three years or less will be triable either way, which will be heard by a judge. Judges act without fear or favour, and they swear a judicial oath, but jury trials will still continue in this country.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

3. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

[The Solicitor General]

The Law Officers’ power to refer unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal is a powerful way to ensure that justice is achieved in some of the most serious crimes. It gives a voice to victims, their families and the public in the sentencing of cases. Since my appointment as the Solicitor General in September last year, I have received requests to review the sentences imposed on 815 offenders. In the last six months, 30 offenders have had their sentences increased under the scheme.

[Lorraine Beavers]

I am grateful to the Solicitor General for her meeting with me on Monday about the failures of the unduly lenient sentence scheme. It is not enough simply to ensure that families are informed of their rights; they should have longer than the current 28 days to use those rights. For families who have been put through traumatic trials, that is just not long enough. Will the Solicitor General update the House on what plans she has to ensure that families and victims have every chance to see justice done?

[The Solicitor General]

I thank my hon. Friend for attending the unduly lenient sentence scheme victims roundtable on Monday evening. I know what a strong advocate she is for her constituent Katie Brett, whose sister Sasha was brutally murdered. Victims and families should always be informed about the scheme, but I know that that does not always happen, and I know how grief is compounded if an application is then rejected out of time. That is not good enough, and that is why I am working with the Ministry of Justice to find solutions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh)]

We have a system. Methane-reducing food products, including seaweed, oils and synthetic products such as Bovaer, are a key tool in reducing emissions from agriculture by up to one third. Bovaer is approved for use in 70 countries, including those in the EU, Switzerland, the US, Canada and Australia. We are building the market for safe, effective options and helping farmers to adopt them. Such products are approved by the Food Standards Agency, and that advice has not been changed. Bovaer has been reviewed by 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

T3.   My constituents have had to put up with over two years of toxic stench because of Transwaste’s disgraceful activity at the Jameson Road landfill site. Residents are weary of the endless enforcement orders issued by the Environment Agency. It is not complicated: the toxic stink has to stop. Will the Minister work with me to ensure that the Environment Agency has the powers to shut down these cowboys once and for all?

[Mary Creagh]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her tireless campaigning on that disgraceful site. The Environment Agency has served a notice requiring the operator to reduce the risk of smells, and the deadline is 9 February. We expect the operator to comply. If it does not, all options, including suspension and closure, remain on the table.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I am happy to send the shadow Minister the list of media coverage I got from the Royal Cornwall Show. He does not seem to be any better at googling than remembering who he sat down with at lunch. I am delighted that the spending review was welcomed by the environmental NGOs and the National Farmers Union as it funds activities that include the ones he referred to. It seems that everyone is delighted with the review apart from him.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

T3.   Residents of Thornton-Cleveleys in my constituency are being warned not to eat food grown in their own gardens because a local site is being investigated after testing found high concentrations around it of a banned substance called perfluorooctanoic acid, which has proven to be carcinogenic, and there have been discharges into the protected River Wyre. This is affecting hundreds of residents in the area, and there are fears of contamination to water and locally grown food. What steps will the Minister take to address this problem under the current regulations to ensure that constituents like mine are protected?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important issue. The Government are, of course, strongly committed to ensuring a high level of protection for human health and the environment. I am aware that the Environment Agency is investigating this matter, so I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss it in detail.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

T2. The people of Fleetwood, Thornton and beyond have suffered from toxic stenches for the past 12 months. Last night was extremely unpleasant, with residents reporting nosebleeds, breathing problems, headaches and vomiting this morning. The stench is due to the mismanagement of the local Jameson Road landfill site. Despite multiple interventions by the Environment Agency, including a six-week closure, the smell is now as bad as ever, if not worse. Order. These are topical questions—please get to the question. What can the Government do to ensure that the Environment Agency has much stronger powers to deal with landfill sites that bring daily misery to residents, such as those living in my constituency?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh)]

My heart goes out to my hon. Friend’s constituents, who are clearly suffering terrible public health consequences from the stink at that site. There is an ongoing investigation into the cause of odour issues that have impacted the community in Fleetwood, which escalated in January 2024. The Environment Agency has told me that it expects odour issues to reduce within the next seven days. Should that not occur, it will consider any and all appropriate regulatory interventions to reduce the impact on the community. It has also launched—

Fishing Industry

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Thursday 28th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. As the Member for Gordon and Buchan, I represent a constituency that plays a key role in Scotland’s fishing industry. The strategic transport corridors of the A90, the A947 and the A96, which run through my constituency, are crucial arteries on which our fishing industry relies for its distribution network. Those vital links connect our coastal fishing communities to processors and markets across the UK and Europe. I will touch on three crucial issues: the vital role that fishing plays in our food security, the increasing spatial squeeze in our waters, and the TCA.

Fish and fishing are part of our national food security. It should go without saying, but it is so important that the industry is not overlooked. The 2021 UK food security report stated that fish constitutes a valuable protein source, accounting for nearly 20% of the total animal protein consumed globally. With the consumption of fish going up in recent decades, both globally and in the UK, the figure will only increase.

Our fishing grounds—we are seeing something similar with our farmland—are becoming ever more crowded, with increased pressure for space and with competing and often incompatible uses of the marine environment leading to spatial squeeze. About 37% of the seas around Scotland are now in one of the 240 offshore or inshore marine protected areas. The industry also has to be mindful of the “Will they, won’t they?” potential for highly protected marine areas. Coupled with the expansion of offshore renewable energy, such as wind, tidal and wave, that means that the space for fishing in our offshores is shrinking faster than ever.

Fishing is currently excluded from about a third of Scottish waters. Back in the year 2000, the figure was only 1%, so we can see the scale and pace of change. Yes, we need renewable energy and we need to protect the marine environment—important sites such as Forvie in my constituency show that—but we also need proper consultation on how the fishing industry may be increasingly impacted. Generations of expertise relating to fishing, spawning grounds and species movement must be considered when other decisions are taken. The incoming competing pressures in our seas must not be prioritised over fishing or to the detriment of the fishing industry. The current balance does not feel equitable, despite the value of fishing in producing healthy, sustainable and low-carbon food, contributing to our food security and supporting thousands of coastal jobs around the country.

As has been said, the upcoming discussions on the trade and co-operation agreement post 2026 are crucial and of real concern to the industry. There is a clear imbalance off our shores, with EU vessels catching in our waters six times the value of fish that we catch in theirs. That imbalance affects not only boats at sea, but the entire supply chain, including businesses and workers in my Gordon and Buchan constituency who form part of the north-east’s fishing industry network. That imbalance needs addressing in the TCA review, and the review offers an opportunity to do so, but the Government must prioritise our fishing sector and not grant EU vessels inequitable access to UK waters as part of a wider deal with the EU. The rhetoric of resetting relationships must not come at the expense of our fishing sector or our coastal communities. It is so vital that the Government prioritise the TCA. There was silence on it in Labour’s manifesto, and that cannot be replicated here.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

It is clear that ex-fishing towns such as Fleetwood, which I represent, have been devastated by the decline of our once prosperous fishing industry. My community and lots of others were built on fishing and thrived on it, but Fleetwood has suffered terribly from job losses and a decrease in living standards. Everyone in this room knows that our fishing industry is in decline. Does the hon. Member agree that if these negotiations are handled properly, we could see increased investment in our towns that could reverse the devastation to our local economy? That would be so important to many communities like mine.

[Harriet Cross]

I agree with the hon. Member, and I certainly hope that that is the case. It is important that these negotiations go well, and it is important that our fishing communities are helped and represented. As I was going to say, money that is spent in the fishing environment has an economic impact onshore that is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater. It is important for everyone across the country, including our fishing communities, that this is handled correctly.

I hope the Minister will address the concerns about how we manage the growing spatial squeeze that is felt by our fleet. There must be a proper assessment of the impact on supply chains and distribution networks. The strategy for the 2026 negotiations will be really important, given that they are starting so soon.

The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) paid tribute to those working at sea, and I want to pay tribute to the RNLI crews. It is a charity close to my heart. Its brave crews risk their lives to save lives at sea; they do us all a service, and they do us proud.

Future of Fishing

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Robbie Moore]

Right now, the current Government have a real opportunity to reset the situation as they go into the negotiations with the European Union. Before 2026, there is an opportunity to provide much more certainty to the fishing fleet. As Opposition Members have said, when going into negotiations it is important to set the bar incredibly high, so that we get the landing pitch right and ensure we get the best result for our UK fishing industry. If that means setting the bar so high that we are unwilling to enter into a deal that is set too early, so be it. At the end of the day, we have to get the right result for the UK fishing industry, because it will be under threat if we do not.

On the concerns I raised about employment law, I would be grateful if the Minister could outline any economic analysis that was undertaken for the Employment Rights Bill, specifically on the fishing sector. I am deeply concerned that the introduction of a raft of new labour reforms will threaten that sector. They will not only hike up employers’ national insurance rates and lower the threshold, but will hike up the minimum wage and introduce day one rights that pile on risk for employers. Concern has been raised with me and other Members that that will put pressure on the fishing industry. That is why it is so important that we get the discussions right at this time.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

I come from Fleetwood, and our fishing industry was decimated after the cod wars. My husband works in fish processing in my area, and let me tell the hon. Gentleman that Brexit, which was introduced under his party’s leadership, destroyed fish exports from Fleetwood. Every Monday, a van used to come from Peterhead and stop at Fleetwood; we used to fill it up with fish, and it went out to France. That has never happened since we left the European Union. The legislation that the Labour party is bringing in will secure jobs on Fleetwood dock and look after the men who work there. Fish processing is very hard work. It is very cold, and it is a skill—

[Clive Efford (in the Chair)]

Order. This is an intervention, not a speech.