Historic landfill sites in Ely, Cambridgeshire
The Environment Agency records 7 historic landfill sites in and around Ely, Cambridgeshire. covering roughly 16 hectares in total. The largest is Beet Sugar Factory at 6.3 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to liquid/sludge waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Ely (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beet Sugar Factory | 6.3 ha | 1981 | Waste types not recorded |
| Willow Walk | 4.52 ha | 1974 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| Starlock Hay Fen Common | 1.96 ha | 1978 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Station Road | 1.52 ha | 1983 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Littleport | 0.56 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| South of Dimmock's Cote Road | 0.47 ha | 1975 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Beet Sugar Factory | 0.25 ha | 1981 | Waste types not recorded |
What this data does — and doesn't — cover
- Licensed-era records only. Waste licensing began in 1974. Older tips — especially small pre-war ones — are incompletely recorded, so absence from this data does not mean no landfill ever existed here.
- Not the contaminated-land register. Councils hold a separate register of land determined as contaminated. A historic landfill entry is not a contamination determination, and vice versa.
- Boundaries are indicative. Digitised at 1:10,000 scale; some are buffers around a point rather than surveyed edges.
- Not a substitute for a formal environmental search. If you're buying, your conveyancer's environmental search checks this and several other sources.
EA Historic Landfill dataset, October 2025 revision. More on the methodology page.
Common questions
- How many former landfill sites are there in Ely?
- 7 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Ely town centre in the Environment Agency's Historic Landfill dataset (October 2025 revision). Pre-1974 sites are incompletely recorded, so the true historical number is likely higher.
- How do I check a specific address in Ely?
- Search the postcode on Landfill Check — you'll see every recorded site within 1km, with distance, direction and waste types, measured to the site boundary.
Nearby areas
Worth reading: buying a house near a former landfill and what the waste types mean.