Landfill Check

Birch Coppice Mineral Extraction Site

SpecialLiquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert

Birch Coppice Mineral Extraction Site is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Brownhills. It received special (hazardous), liquid/sludge, industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1976 and 1990, covering about 8.68 hectares. Reference EAHLD21012, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD21012
Site nameBirch Coppice Mineral Extraction Site
AddressOff Pelsall Road, Brownhills, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
Site operatorLeigh Land Reclamation Limited
Licence holderLeigh Land Reclamation Limited
Licence issued17 July 1979
Licence surrendered26 July 1991
First waste input2 February 1976
Last waste input31 December 1990
Area8.68 ha
Gas controlYes
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaUpper Trent MI
Grid reference403600, 305600

Source: Environment Agency Historic Landfill Sites dataset, October 2025 revision.

Boundary map

What these waste types mean

Special:
the licensing-era term for hazardous waste — asbestos, chemicals, oils. The category that most warrants a closer look.
Liquid / sludge:
liquid wastes and sludges, such as sewage sludge or industrial effluent. Can be mobile in groundwater, so worth understanding.
Industrial:
factory and process waste. Contents vary widely — some benign, some not; the site's operator and era are the clues.
Household:
everyday domestic refuse. Decomposes and can generate landfill gas for a few decades after closure.
Commercial:
waste from shops and offices — paper, packaging, food. Similar profile to household waste, usually less of it.
Inert:
builder's rubble, subsoil, concrete, brick. Doesn't decompose or generate gas; the lowest-concern category.

Other historic landfill sites nearby

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.