Neighbours will remember the dramatic fire last September at the waste disposal site on Shakespeare Road, which created alarming plumes of smoke across many streets. Earlier posts here reported our letter to Lambeth Council on the vexed question of reopening the waste site, and the reply from the relevant Councillor.

The site was cleared and levelled before Christmas. As far as we know, no dramatic developments have taken place since then. And as reported at the time, any move to reopen the site would have to be subject to full planning permission with opportunities for the community to object. There is no evidence that any such planning applications have been received so far.

Fire Brigade investigation

Separately we were told that the London Fire Brigade would be investigating the causes of the fire.

This didn’t seem to get us very far. Last week we asked the Fire Brigade whether their enquiry had reached any conclusion. They have now replied saying simply that “the outcome of the fire was treated as accidental unknown”.

The vocabulary is clumsy, but I think the meaning is clear: the circumstances were obscure and in practice impossible to discover – they don’t know what caused it but assume it was not deliberate.