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'Stinky' landfill notice withdrawn after work to cut smells

Haider SaleemNorth West
BBC A protester in a high vis jacket holds a sign, smiling to the camera, reading 'STOP THE STINK'. The words 'STINK' are in red. BBC
Residents have staged protests over long-running odour complaints, while the regulator says the new covering should reduce smells from the site.

An enforcement notice against the operator of a landfill in a Lancashire coastal town has been withdrawn after work aimed at reducing smells passed inspection.

Transwaste, the company that runs the Jameson Road landfill site in Fleetwood, was ordered to temporarily cover recently deposited waste.

The Environment Agency said the covering would help reduce odour emissions from the landfill, although work on a more permanent covering is continuing.

The notice was issued on 7 July and required the work to be completed by 20 July. Specialists inspected it the following day and found it complied with the notice, allowing it to be formally withdrawn.

The covering was installed on the southern part of an area known as Cell 6, which monitoring had identified as the source of the site's most significant gas emissions.

The agency said it expected residents would notice a reduction in odour, although work to install a more permanent covering across the whole of Cell 6 is continuing.

It said officers would also remain in the community.

'Odour nuisance'

More than 20,000 complaints had been made by late June about smells from the site, which some residents compared with rotten eggs.

A Lancashire County Council investigation found the smells were contributing to stress and sleep disturbance, although pollutant levels were below those associated with toxic harm.

Transwaste previously said it accepted that odour nuisance could affect quality of life and took the issue seriously.

It said there was a "meaningful and important distinction between odour nuisance and toxicological harm".

Separately, Transwaste lodged an appeal on 17 July against changes to its environmental permit.

Those changes, introduced in May, restrict the site to only accepting inert waste, such as soil, concrete and bricks, or other waste unlikely to cause odour. They also require extra gas-monitoring points around the site boundary.

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