A FORMER waste landfill site has been re-opened to sort out dangerous subsidence problems.

The area of land in High Ongar will now have up to 75 lorries per day coming in and out of the site to deliver around 45,000 cubic metres of soil.

Work has already begun and is expected to take around three months to finish.

The area had been left for around five years, after work carried out in February 2005 to deal with subsidence was thought to have fixed the problem.

But Ongar County Councillor Gerard McEwen said the site was now dangerous and needed urgent attention.

He added: “The dangers are there are big holes and they could fill up with water so there's no option but to do something about it. We thought it was all finished back in 2005. We knew there would be subsiding but we couldn't foresee that it would happen to this extent.

"We have had one previous incident when a hole opened up and now we have a lot more. If it was left it would get much worse and we couldn't leave it for safety reasons. There would always be the risk of someone going on there.”

Mr McEwen said concerns had been raised about the affect the traffic movements would have on local residents but further planning permission was not required.

He added: “There are very few residential houses around there so I can't imagine it will affect anyone. But it couldn't be left. There could be a gas leak. The system is to extract the gas from the site and if it leaks away into the atmosphere that's not good.”

Are you worried about the number of lorries coming in and out of the site? Call Emily Roberts on 07795316211.