Landfill Check

Portishead Power Station

SpecialIndustrialInert

Portishead Power Station is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Portishead, North Somerset. It received special (hazardous), industrial and inert waste between 1972 and 1989, covering about 2.44 hectares. Reference EAHLD09082, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD09082
Site namePortishead Power Station
AddressPortishead, Bristol
Site operatorNot recorded
Licence holderCentral Electricity Generating Board South West Region
Licence issued17 October 1978
Licence surrendered10 March 1992
First waste input31 December 1972
Last waste input31 December 1989
Area2.44 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaNorth Wessex SW
Grid reference348300, 177100

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.
Industrial:
factory and process waste. Contents vary widely — some benign, some not; the site's operator and era are the clues.
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.