As you well know, residents and businesses have suffered for more than a decade from Donoghue’s dust and chemical pollution, noise, work out-of-hours, speeding HGVs, transport of uncovered waste and illegal parking.

For the past two years, Barnet councillors, the most affected residents’ representatives, the Environment Agency and Council officers have been meeting quarterly at the Council to find the best way forward.

Thanks to people speaking up…

• Donoghue is now a high public interest site for both the Environment Agency and Barnet Council.
• Alarming findings from an independent monitoring report highlighted:
  • Donoghue breaches its daily tonnage limit.
  • Site samples included traces of unauthorised toxic substances, including asbestos.
  • Donoghue’s methodology for handling and recording waste needed to be improved.
• Barnet Council conducted a deep cleaning of The Vale and Claremont Road.
• The Environment Agency placed an air quality monitoring station next to the site – although to our surprise it was prematurely removed on Friday 22 February.

This has put pressure on Donoghue to comply with regulations and resulted in more cleaning and dust suppression mechanisms on site.

On the other hand, very little has been achieved to improve the life quality of directly affected residents and businesses. More worryingly, there has been no news of any relocation site.

Under these circumstances, our frustration has been growing. To make matters worse, residents feel angry and betrayed because of Barnet’s Mayor’s decision to include Donoghue in Barnet’s New Year’s Day parade and the recent consultation on the introduction of width restrictions in Somerton Road.

See the recent media coverage on the situation.

See also: Why Donoghue’s Relocation Cannot Wait

In particular, do please continue to advise the Environment Agency (telephone 0800 80 70 60 day or night) if you see or hear any problems on the Donoghue site or on its vehicles (e.g. loads with no cover, excessive noise or dust). A photo always helps.

Donoghue’s planning permission allows them to work only on Mondays to Saturdays from 7 am to 6 pm. They are not permitted to work on Sundays or Public Holidays. If you witness any works on the site outside the permitted hours, please take a photo if possible and let the committee know.

If you see any of Donoghue’s vehicles committing any parking, speeding or other traffic offences, please take a photo and report it to the Police (telephone 101).

The Environment Agency recently commissioned a thorough site audit which highlighted a lot of ways in which Donoghue’s are potentially or actually in breach of their permit. One significant fact is that they are storing on site more than 3 times the amount of waste that they are permitted to. The Donoghue Out team are following this up. You can download and read the EA’s most recent newsletter EA Donoghues Newsletter Dec 2017 (PDF – 297 KB).

Finally, you can read a letter from the Health and Safety Executive that was sent to our MP, Mike Freer, in February HSE Report Feb 2018 (PDF – 346 KB).

Please continue to report any irregularities you notice about the company’s site or lorries to the Environment Agency’s Incident Hotline: 0800 807 060.  This makes such a difference!

The Environment Agency’s October 2017 Newsletter on P B Donoghue is now available. If you’d like a copy please request it from Matt Byrne, Customers and Engagement Officer: phone 0208 474 9864, or email HNLenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.