RESIDENTS in Stanford-le-Hope who have been concerned about an increasing number of incidents whereby it appears fires have been lit at the Stanhope Industrial Park at the end of Wharf Road have been assured they do not originate from the works of the site's biggest occupier, Squibb Demolition.

Over recent days and nights there have been a number of fires in the area, culminating in a particularly pungent cloud of black smoke that drifted over the town last evening (Wednesday, 20 May) with many people unable to open their windows because of its unpleasant smell.

Thurrock Nub News approached local ward councillors to check out their concerns and received an immediate response from Clle Shane Hebb.

He said: "As Thurrock Nub News correctly reports, there have been a number of reports about burning activities emerging from the Stanhope Industrial Estate - as ward councillors, we have reported these to Thurrock Council and are working with the them to highlight further incidents, as we want this activity to cease immediately.

"Investigation processes are underway, and we continue to feed reports into the council - unauthorised burning has multiple harmful impacts - it causes discomfort for local residents who rightly may want to have their windows open, but can't for the smoke coming into their homes; as well as the obvious, and adverse, environmental impacts.

"Residents with further evidence of these burning contraventions are encouraged to send that evidence onto me at [email protected]."

And Cllr Shane Ralph also confirmed he witnessed a large plume of black small last evening.

He told us: "That smoke last night did look very black at times. I took a drive down to the yard to see what was going on. It looks like it's in the same place where they always have the fire."

However, though the finger of suspicion pointed at demolition contractors Squibb, they tell us they do not burn anything at the site – and they are not aware of neighbor premises burning either.

Squibb site operations manager Robert Honour told Thurrock Nub News: "We were not aware of a significant number of complaints (nor any complaints) as we do not operate a burning operation, and this would probably explain why.

"However, as a prominent operation within the Stanhope Industrial Park, we can understand why this mistake may have been made.

"To further clarify, we have many official announced and unannounced visits from Thurrock Council and the Environment Agency every year, as we hold various permits for different aspects of our site operations.

"We have always been granted and retain these permits, as we operate in full compliance with the strict legislation and guidance which the permissioning bodies monitor and audit regularly.

"We would also further add, that since we have been located in Stanhope Industrial Park, we have never experienced any levels of smells from any of our neighbouring businesses (which over the last three years have expanded threefold) that could warrant complaint, and it must also be stressed, the closest residential homes to Stanhope Industrial Park are at least 500 metres away."