Waste recycling centre fires are in vogue. This week a large fire has broken out at a recycling centre in Smethwick and follows on from our very own fire at the Forge recycling centre on the Stourport Road in Kidderminster – the second one at The Forge in seven months.

There is, understandably, a degree of concern amongst the community about pollution getting into the atmosphere as a result.

People are justifiably worried about what health effects the smoke will be having, and I have taken a number of calls from people who have been worried about the lack of information from the authorities.

In the event of a major crisis, a standard set of protocols and procedures are rolled out to protect the population – we saw this recently with the small fire at the Roxel facility near Kidderminster.

The response is proportional to the crisis and in the case of a major and highly toxic fire, there are evacuation procedures in place.

The fact that the local community heard nothing means that the assessment made by public health authorities was that there was no public health risk.

But no news will not always be seen as good news: if you run a school, for example, you have the responsibility of pupils and staff and you need to know what is going on.

As a result of the calls I have had, I met with the various agencies involved – the Environment Agency, Public Health England (PHE), the Fire Authority and Wyre Forest District Council (co-ordination the response).

I was reassured that whilst the smell is unpleasant, it is not a major problem for public health.

PHE are monitoring doctors’ surgeries and hospital out-patient departments to see if there is any noticeable increase in patients presenting with relevant complaints.

There seem very few. Letting the fire continue to burn itself out is the least worse choice (there is never a ‘best’ outcome in these instances).

The district council held a meeting on Monday with local businesses and agreed to webcast this meeting and put it on their website for six months so all can view it to get more information.

Finally, it was agreed to look again at emergency protocol to see how best to keep the community informed about this type of event.

There will always be information on the district council website, but we do collectively need to do more to get information out, even if it is a “no news is good news” message.

CONTACT YOUR MP

  • Email: mark.garnier.mp@ parliament.uk
  • Telephone: 020 7219 7198 or 01562 746771.
  • Write: 9a Lower Mill Street, Kidderminster, DY11 6UU, or House of Commons, Westminster, London