The Environment Agency has issued a Closure Notice to Walleys Quarry Ltd requiring the closure of its landfill site.
Commenting, the Leader of Newcastle Borough Council, Cllr Simon Tagg, said:
The Environment Agency is the main regulator for this site and for far too long the Borough Council has been urging it to act on behalf of a community under siege.
Complaints to the council about the foul gas odours have soared this year, already more than double the whole of 2023, and I hope that this action by the EA is the first step to a permanent solution for our residents.
I would encourage residents to carry on reporting the foul smells every time they happen to both the Council and the EA.
Silverdale councillor Rupert Adcock, said:
Genuine grassroots community pressure has achieved this outcome. Local people suffered and sacrificed so much of their time and energy to fight this fight for clean air even when it got nasty and the operator went after them.
So much I could say on this but first and foremost a huge thanks to all the campaigners, councillors, doctors, lawyers and everyone who fought for this for so long. It was clear that the operator had made almost no progress in 4 years of enhanced monitoring and things were going backwards yet again.
The Closure Notice follows a spike in complaints about the landfill, which for November reached levels not recorded since 2021. Published raw data from the odour monitoring facilities around the site showed that hydrogen sulphide emissions around the landfill breached WHO odour annoyance guideline levels for 47.9 per cent of the time, during the week ending 10 November.
Residents can continue to report problems with Walleys Quarry to the Environment Agency and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council:
Environment Agency:
https://report-walleys-quarry-smell.service.gov.uk/
Newcastle Borough Council:
https://www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/LandfillSite
