National Assembly for Wales

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Supports:

a) the need for greater transparency about contaminated land; and

b) the principles of Zane’s law named after seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola, who was killed by gas from a nearby landfill site when his home was flooded. 

2. Notes that:

a) Zane’s family home was adjacent to likely contaminated landfill from which floodwater flowed which necessitated the area being evacuated;

b) commends the family’s decade-long campaign following Zane’s death;

c) the British Medical Journal states 80 per cent of people live within 2km of landfill;

d) the inadequacy of current regulations regarding toxic waste disposal and the danger to human life, to the environment, and to the planet, from both historic landfill sites and currently approved landfill sites operating the dry tomb principle; and

e) that this issue is an increasing problem in an era of climate breakdown, with rising sea levels, increased rainfall, and widespread flooding.

3. Calls on the next Welsh Government to consider legislation to:

a) recognise the human right to a healthy environment, approved by the UN General Assembly in July 2022;

b) ensure each relevant local authority must keep a full, regularly updated register of land that may be contaminated within their boundary;

c) the Environment Agency and National Resources Wales must keep a full, public national register of contaminated land to be regularly updated by information from local authorities;

d) all above mentioned registers of land must be accessible and available for inspection by the general public;

e) ensure relevant local authorities must inspect any land registered that may be contaminated and must fully remediate or enforce remediation of any land which poses harm to public safety, or which pollutes controlled waters;

f) ensure relevant local authorities must be responsible for inspecting previously closed landfill sites and fully remediating them or enforcing their remediation when they pose a risk of significant harm to people or controlled waters; and

g) ensure adequate funding is available to local authorities to deal with this issue.