Summerleaze closes down Lea Farm landfill site

Summerleaze Waste Management is closing down the landfill operation at Lea Farm, Lodge Road during September.

The last cell has been capped and the remaining work on this will be harrowing, fertilising and seeding the topsoil so that it can be used for grazing sheep. Other remedial work will be done to distribute sub-soil and topsoil around the edges of the small lake and wetland areas that have been created between Lea Farm and the river.

The Bailey bridge over the Loddon river to connect Lea Farm with Sandford Farm was removed early in September. This means that workers are using entrances to the site from Lodge Road, including Lea Farm. Summerleaze reassured HVS that these extra traffic movements would be workers’ own vehicles (including caravans). At the end of the work, during October, all the heavy plant will be moved off the site via Lodge Road.

Summerleaze is still working on the Sandford Farm site. This includes removing the equipment and temporary buildings associated with gravel extraction over the last 30 years, and restoring sub-soil and topsoil. Since the mid-1970s more than four million tons of gravel have been removed from the entire site.

The last Summerleaze liaison group meeting was held on 1st September and included a two hour walk around the Sandford Farm and Lea Farm sites to view the restoration work and find out more about the areas that will be managed by Wokingham DC Countryside Services. This includes Lodge Wood, the Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hurst, which has a large population of the rare Loddon Lily. Photos of the walk are on our website.