Nightmare Fleetwood landfill bosses issue statement after 'stink deadline missed'

Bosses of a nuisance landfill in Fleetwood have issued a statement after a deadline to address unpleasant smells was missed yesterday (May 15).

Transwaste operate the site on Jameson Road, which has been omitting a 'rotten egg' odour for the past six months. On April 9, the Environment Agency served an enforcement notice to the operators, stating the site needed to go back into compliance with its permit - the deadline of which was this week.

The notice required Transwaste to cover the problematic areas of the site, particularly cell one and five which were "inadequately covered to prevent the emission of landfill gas". However, the operators surpassed the deadline due to "external delays beyond our control and bad weather."

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Despite the delays, Transwaste say the work should be completed in the next few days and odour is now starting to reduce.

In a statement released today (May 16), the operators said: "The work was delayed slightly by bad weather but should be complete in the next few days, depending on ongoing weather conditions.

"Most of the face is now covered and odour is starting to reduce. Once the capping is completed and the gas capture wells are ‘balanced’, this should resolve the issue of any odour escaping from the site."

The odour coming from the site has been troublesome for those living nearby, but concerns for human health were also sparked. Residents complained of headaches, nosebleeds and breathing difficulties and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stated any risk to physical health is "likely to be small" but alarmingly it "cannot be completely excluded."

John Neville, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in Cumbria and Lancashire, said: "We understand how unpleasant the odour issues are and we are committed to making improvements for local residents and the environment. We have increased our regulatory inspections of the site and our officers are out assessing the odour and its impact daily.

"On April 9, we served an enforcement notice setting out action the site operator, Transwaste, need to take to bring the site back into compliance with its permit. This includes covering the problematic areas of the landfill site by 15 May, which will help reduce odour emissions.

"We expect the operator to comply with the conditions of their environmental permit and stop unacceptable impacts on the local community and the environment.

"Members of the public can continue to report odour to our 24/7 incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60."