Landfill Check

Dowley Gap

Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercial

Dowley Gap is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Bingley. It received liquid/sludge, industrial, household and commercial waste between 1946 and 1982, covering about 9.48 hectares. Reference EAHLD04025, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD04025
Site nameDowley Gap
AddressWagon Lane, Bingley, Yorkshire
Site operatorBingley Urban District Council
Licence holderYorkshire Water Authority
Licence issued5 March 1980
Licence surrendered21 May 1993
First waste input1 January 1946
Last waste input31 December 1982
Area9.48 ha
Gas controlYes
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaRidings NE
Grid reference411900, 438000

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

Boundary map

What these waste types mean

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.

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.