More than a million pounds of district council money could be spent on an old rubbish tip in Ongar to protect the local environment from leaking pollution.

Bobbingworth Tip, near Moreton, has been out of use for around 20 years but household waste thrown into the ground as far back as the 1960s has come back to the top of the district council agenda.

The problem comes from water which passes through the underground rubbish collecting pollutants on its way before seeping out into the surrounding land and water courses.

Environmental portfolio holder and Ongar District Councillor Derek Jacobs will be hoping to persuade fellow cabinet members of the need to spend an estimated £1,007,000 to protect the local environment for future generations.

He said: "We have got to control the leachate (polluted water) leaking from the tip and stop it from getting into the water course and Cripsey Brook. If we don't do this we are leaving this tip open to pollution problems that will go on for a long time."

Clerk of Moreton, Bobbingworth and the Lavers Parish Council Colin Thompson is keen to see cabinet agree the plans and hopes the site can be turned into a park for local people, but he believes the council could have saved itself a lot of money if had acted sooner.

The council's head of environmental services John Gilbert said the latest solution will involve digging a trench around three sides of the tip and building a wall to keep the water in - allowing some control over the flow of contaminated water.

The difference with this proposal is that the council will enter into a partnership with Pearl-Cleanaway - a waste disposal company - who will run the site for them and be responsible if things go wrong.

Published Thursday July 8, 2004

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