Bosses of a ‘nuisance’ landfill site in Fleetwood have hit back at claims they are in ‘continuous breaches of permit conditions’.
Transwaste are the current operators of a landfill site on Jameson Road, having taken over from Suez in 2023. In the same year, residents started noticing a “sulphur-like” smell omitting from the landfill, after one of the cells were opened for modernisation.
In order to do this, Transwaste installed installed pin wells to capture methane and reduce odours, but the cell needed to be re-opened. Since then, residents have complained of the smell affecting their every day lives, but more recently this has reduced.
However, they are still arguing against the site in the area, stating the smell still exists and there are even campaigns to get the site to close. Transwaste themselves state concerns have been addressed during Community Liaison Groups, an opportunity for local representatives on site developments to speak to and hear feedback from the local communities.
Due to the year of adversity for the site, the landfill is being monitored closely by the Environment Agency and is subject to unannounced in-person visits and drone flyovers. As some locals say the work they do is in “breaches of permit”, Transwaste call this “bordering on libellous” as they work on the site, with only a small portion uncovered each day to allow tipping, which is then covered up again at the end of the day.
A spokesperson for Transwaste said: “In the last 12 months, Transwaste has undertaken over £2m worth of work to bring the site up to modern standards and to install gas capture infrastructure. This essential work initially meant disturbing the old waste in Cell 5 which caused the odour problem.
“Work in Cell 5 has now been completed and it has fully functioning gas capture infrastructure in place. Cell 6 has now been constructed to the latest standards and had gas capture infrastructure installed prior to tipping starting in order to proactively prevent any future odour problems.
“This extensive work has started to bear fruit, and at the last community liaison meeting, the Environment Agency stated that complaints were down 96 per cent from the April levels. It was also acknowledged that not all of the complaints received related to Transwaste, as some related to non-waste odours and others were reported when the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.
“Transwaste will continue to work to, or beyond, industry best practice to minimise any odour from the site.”
Subscribe to our daily newsletter LANCS LIVE NEWS and get all the biggest stories from across Lancashire direct to your inbox