The Hitchin businesses where five fires have occurred in the last year must "depart our town", a councillor has said. 

Cllr Sam Collins (LD, Hitchin Highbury) made the comments at a full meeting of North Herts Council on Thursday (November 28), which passed a motion calling for the Environment Agency to review the licenses for the businesses where the fires have taken place.

The council is also asking for more transparency on pollution monitoring in the area. The fires took place between December 2023 and November 2024 at two metal recycling centres in the industrial area.

Last month, Hertfordshire County Council said they were "unable to determine" the cause of the most recent fire, on November 8 in Wallace Way. 

But Cllr Louise Peace (LD, Cadwell) said the Environment Agency had since confirmed to her that it was "the result of a self-combusting lithium battery within a waste pile". Lithium-ion batteries have been identified as the likely cause of multiple previous fires in the area.

Cllr Ian Albert (Lab), along with fellow Hitchin Bearton ward councillors Cllr Val Bryant (Lab) and Cllr Dave Winstanley (Lab), has been leading calls for action to be taken in response to the fires.

He told Thursday's meeting that lithium-ion batteries are "dangerous," but the fires caused by them are not "necessarily" breaches of the facilities' operating licenses, which are granted by the Environment Agency.

The motion was introduced by Cllr Jon Clayden (LD, Hitchin Highbury), who said: "Recycling is, of course, a vital function … but it must be safe, and it must be safe for the residents.

"There is obvious, significant air pollution as a result of this fire, and there's also a risk of water pollution from these fires because the sites are close to the River Hiz.

"But how much pollution is there? Well, we can't really know that unless we have access to reliable monitoring information, and this is something that … we don't have ready access to.

"How, therefore, do we know the air is safe to breathe, how can we tell residents that?"

Cllr Winstanley said he had been assured by the Environment Agency that no water had entered the River Hiz following the most recent fire.

He said the "shocking" fires had led to "constant correspondence" between the relevant authorities and the councillors for Hitchin Bearton ward.

Alistair Strathern, MP for Hitchin, and Cllr Daniel Allen (Lab, Letchworth Norton), leader of North Herts Council, have also sent letters.

Cllr Allen has called for the Environment Agency to "establish regular and transparent air quality monitoring" at and around the Wallace Way site. He confirmed that a public meeting on the issue has been called for January.

Potential health issues resulting from fires at the metal recycling centres were raised by a number of councillors.

Deputy leader of the council, Cllr Bryant, said residents have to live with "air pollution" and lorries "thundering" past their homes, while Cllr Peace said it was likely the smoke from the recent fire contained "carbon particulate matter" which is "linked to a number of health impacts".

Conservatives joined Labour and Liberal Democrat colleagues in voting for the motion.

Group leader Cllr Ralph Muncer (Codicote & Kimpton) said the number of fires was "completely and utterly unacceptable" and there was a "human cost" to the fires in "anxiety, distress and disruption", while deputy leader Cllr David Barnard (Offa) said he was "dismayed" about the potential health issues from pollution caused by the fires.