Multiple stakeholders gathered at a public meeting in Bentham, Yorkshire on Tuesday 17 June, to help explore and advise the community on ongoing concerns regarding pollution in the town from PFAS ‘forever chemicals’. In a surprising reversal, Angus Fire Limited, the company blamed by some residents for their ill-health owing to PFAS pollution, chose not to attend the public meeting, leaving residents frustrated by their absence. In May, on Bentham Town Council’s website, Angus Fire were noted to appear at the public meeting, but by 16 June, they were no longer on the list of participants.
Bentham has been described as having the highest known levels of PFAS contamination in the UK, recorded on land belonging to Angus Fire Limited – a major employer in the town. Residential developments near the site, as well as playing fields and agricultural sites were all found to have exceptionally high PFAS readings in the soil.
This led Dr Patrick Byrne of Liverpool John Moores University to tell The Guardian that Bentham has the “highest concentrations of total PFAS that I have ever come across in any environment in England”. Angus Fire say experienced environmental consultants have told them that the PFAS levels identified were acceptable for the types of land use.
PFAS chemicals in Bentham
PFAS chemicals are becoming more and more well known, thanks to studies and testing conducted around the country, with rising calls for a ban and restrictions on the entire class of over 10,000 separate PFAS chemicals. A study was published last week regarding the widespread extent of ‘forever chemical’ pollution in UK rivers, drawing attention to one particular PFAS chemical-trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), and its levels of contamination.
More is being discovered about the links and harms to human health from PFAS chemicals and it is hoped that public meetings like the one in Bentham may build public knowledge and awareness. Public health data for Bentham appears to indicate that there is a ‘cancer hot spot’ there when compared to neighbouring areas, with deaths from all cancers for all ages higher than the standardised mortality ratio for England as a whole.
It is agreed that legacy contamination exists in Bentham. In response to a question from the Cleaner Bentham Group, and reported on by Yorkshire Bylines in February 2025, Angus Fire said, “We are not denying there has been some historic PFAS contamination on the Bentham site”. PFAS is the broad umbrella term for the group of ‘forever chemicals’, a group containing perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).
Samples from groundwater in Bentham from 2008, recorded a PFAS sum of 1,199,000 ng/l – which is staggering when compared with the new standard level proposed by the EU of 500 ng/l, which continues to be debated and discussed. Currently, the UK has no set standard for acceptable total PFAS levels in groundwater.
On the other hand, the government’s own environmental standard for PFOS in surface water is 0.65ng/l and in 2010, sampling of the site’s groundwater recorded 47,200 ng/l of total PFAS, including 1,300 ng/l of PFOA and 2,600 ng/l of PFOS. In 2018, data obtained from ENDS Investigation shows that 63,400 ng/l of total PFAS was detected – an increase of 34% from 2010. The total sum recorded in 2018 included 2,500 ng/l of PFOA and 10,700 ng/l of PFOS in the groundwater. When the standard for PFOS in surface water is 0.65 ng/l, it needs to be understood that in the UK, there is no agreed standard for PFOS in groundwater, though as measures and directives are in place to inhibit the widespread pollution caused by PFOS chemicals, it is likely that any agreed limit would be low.
A campaign group has been formed to challenge what Angus Fire knew, when they knew the information, and how they intended to remediate the situation.
How serious is the pollution in Bentham?
Mat Young, chair of the campaign group Cleaner Bentham, also raised concerns about the transparency and openness of information coming from Angus Fire, commenting before the public meeting that:
“On 17th June 2025 the following agencies and businesses (North Yorkshire Council (NYC) Public Health, Health Standards Agency (HSA), Environment Agency, North Yorkshire Council Environmental Protection Angus Fire and Yorkshire Water) are getting together to advise the people of Bentham on the pollution situation caused by Angus Fire Limited via a public meeting in Bentham Town Hall.
“The group hopes [that] Angus Fire will willingly reveal information such as the results of their consultation with Manchester University in 2017, when they hired Dr Megson to provide consultation advice in 2017 after paying a £20k grant from Angus Fire for ‘PFAS analysis’. Manchester University As a group we have submitted questions to the panel most of which Angus Fires CEO and Solicitors have refused to answer.”
Cleaner Bentham had submitted questions to Angus Fire Limited and their solicitors, but members are still waiting for answers and were frustrated by the lack of engagement by Angus Fire with the community. A few of the questions have been outlined here:
- Will Angus Fire be testing ex employees and residents for PFAS contamination? If not, why not?
- Confirm what steps you will take to ensure the welfare of the local community;
- Confirm whether you will commit to funding blood testing in the local community, and if not, why not?
- Is Angus willing to provide the test results of Tap Water ‘on their site’ as a sign of good faith?
Addressing community concerns
As one of the bodies which did attend the information evening, the Environment Agency was asked for a statement. An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
“Alongside North Yorkshire Council, we are considering historic PFAS contamination from the Angus Fire site. The Environment Agency is responsible for regulating the permitted activities at the site and we continue to work with partners to address the concerns raised by the local community.
“We are currently reviewing Angus Fire’s environmental permit in relation to PFAS. We will continue to assess any risks associated with the historic presence of these chemicals, including potential contamination.”
With questions going unanswered to the company Angus Fire, the local community’s concerns appear to be being ignored at this stage.
Is there an impact on drinking water?
Yorkshire Water pointed out that they do not take care of wastewater services in the village, and directed questions about the health of the River Wenning to United Utilities, though they had carried out samples in the raw water catchment.
Luke Montgomery, water quality compliance manager at Yorkshire Water, said:
“We take regular samples of raw water throughout the region every day to check its quality. In doing so, we are compliant with the expectations of the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Across England and Wales water companies use a 3-point scale for PFAS levels, with Tier 1 being the lowest risk. All of the samples collected in the raw water catchment for Bentham and surrounding areas are within Tier 1, or lower, showing no concerns in regard to forever chemicals.
“Additionally, The Angus Fire site in Bentham is not within the direct raw water catchment for our treatment works that supplies the area with drinking water.”
Lack of response
Angus Fire, and their PR company Palatine Media, were asked for comment, but there was no response. A lack of engagement with the town of Bentham following the public meeting may prove to be a costly error for them, especially with legal teams watching events unfold in the town. Mat Young commented on their lack of attendance, saying:
“We are also disappointed that Angus Fires CEO Paul Williams did not turn up and we feel this showed a great disrespect to the residents that turned up to the meeting today. Cleaner Bentham is looking forward to its meeting with Bentham Town Council in early to mid July to discuss our 242 Page Environmental report with them and the true impact on Bentham, its residents and people along the Wenning and Lune that have been affected.”
It still may be the case that Yorkshire will see the first PFAS-related legal case in the UK, with Angus Fire Limited having to defend itself from being the first defendant responsible for legacy contamination.
Ed: This article was temporarily taken offline at the request of Angus Fire, while we investigated concerns they raised regarding the accuracy of the content. Having taken legal advice, we have made the following changes, which we note here as per 1.4 of the Impress standards code:
- amended the title to refer to ‘extent of PFAS pollution” rather than “PFAS crisis”
- amended the extract to provide more information about the article
- added a link to the ENDS report on PFAS pollution in Bentham
- changed “widely blamed by residents” to “blamed by some residents”; and “suggests that is is a cancer hotspot” to “appears to indicate there is a cancer hotspot”
- added paragraph three, for clarity
- added Angus Fire’s response to the Cleaner Bentham Group regarding contamination, as previously reported by Yorkshire Bylines
- added several paragraphs to clarify the difference between PFAS and PFOS
- removed a paragraph from a quote from Mat Young in the ‘How serious is pollution in Bentham’? section, that speculated as to Angus Fire’s motives
- removed part of a further quote from Mat Young that suggested Angus Fire was being allowed to ‘police itself’
