§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the(a) number and (b) total size is of landfill sites due to close in each year up until 2015, broken down by region. [85892]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 11 December 2002]: This information is not available in the form requested. Landfill are operated by private companies and the commercial decisions in relation to closure are a matter for them. Some landfills will be closed as a result of regulatory action by the Environment Agency, but predicting how many and when is not possible.
Information that is available relates to England and Wales and comes from the conditioning plan exercise conducted by the Environment Agency. The number of landfill sites that will remain operational post July 2002 and post 2004, broken down by classification (hazardous, non-hazardous and inert) and by region is as follows:
Region Non-hazardous Inert Hazardous (post 2002) Hazardous (post 2004) Anglian 43 60 47 9 Midlands 50 74 42 4 North East 89 58 39 11 North West 49 37 27 8 South West 39 46 16 1 Southern 30 35 13 1 Thames 31 49 19 0 Wales 23 30 15 3 Total 311 329 218 37