Statement regarding historic clear up of former British Steel site in Corby

28 October 2025

Cllr Martin Griffiths, Leader of North Northamptonshire Council:

As Council Leader I fully understand the strength of feeling that has been generated by the handling of the disposal of waste from the former British Steel site in Corby in the 1990s as well as the legacy that this has created and concerns about health.  

Though the waste disposal from the steel works was overseen by Corby Borough Council decades ago we recognise that today, it’s our duty to represent our residents and I take this duty very seriously.  

After we were approached by a group of residents requesting information about the number of childhood cancer cases recorded for children living in Corby, we decided to carry out an important piece of work to carefully investigate relevant NHS data. This work will take time as it’s crucial that we get this right. As soon as we have the outcomes, we will share our findings initially with the residents who asked for this work to be done, and then we will share them publicly.  

In terms of where contaminated waste from the steelworks was taken, based on the evidence we have viewed to date, the waste from the former steelworks site was moved to Deene Quarry, a former landfill site on the outskirts of Corby and was buried there.  

This site is managed under an environmental permit held by North Northamptonshire Council and compliance is regulated by the Environment Agency – with gas and water sampling taking place on a yearly basis as part of the requirements of the permit.  

People have recently raised concerns on potential areas of contaminated land where they believe waste could also have been historically disposed of.  

I understand that people are worried about potentially contaminated land and want answers, particularly where land has subsequently been built upon. We will continue to review this and when this is concluded, will provide a further update. 

However, it is important to highlight that where potentially contaminated land has or is going to be developed, tight rules and procedures are applied to ensure that our resident's safety is protected. 

In 2001, officers from the former Corby Borough Council carried out a comprehensive study of all sites in Corby that could be identified as potentially contaminated land, in accordance with the legislation at the time, and risk rated them to assess those which could have a negative impact on human health.  

This extensive piece of work was catalogued in a Contaminated Land Strategy, which has now been superseded by the North Northamptonshire Contaminated Land Strategy. This is a publicly available document on the council’s website.  

For the vast majority of development works, planning permission will be required. Any piece of land that needs a planning application – and may have  had a previous potentially contaminative use - must be investigated using the national Land Contamination Risk Management procedure. This ensures that investigation and remediation work is carried out if required.

In addition, particularly for larger sites, there will be a dust management plan, included within a Construction Environmental Management Plan, that controls emissions of dust from a site.  

We will continue to listen to the concerns of our residents and will consider any firm evidence that is brought forward. I will continue to have oversight and receive regular updates and when we have further information to share, we will do so.