Residents of Fleetwood say they’re still living with the ‘nightmare’ of smells coming from a local landfill site.
The tale began in 2023 when residents started to experience a putrid smell outside their homes, omitting from the Jameson Road landfill site in the town. Those living nearby say there was a “sulphur-like smell” which led to headaches, breathing difficulties, skin irritation and nose bleeds.
Transwaste took over the site from Suez in the same year, stating the problem concerned Cell Five of the landfill, which needed work to bring it up to modern standards. The company installed installed pin wells to capture methane and reduce odours, but the cell needed to be re-opened.
Over a year later and the smell has reduced, but some locals still aren’t happy with the progress. Transwaste themselves state work in Cell Five has been completed, with work on Cell Six constructed to prevent odour problems in the future.
Resident Jessica Brown said the smell is “still about now and again” and there are some ongoing issues with the site. Jessica states locals of Fleetwood are campaigning to have the site closed, with their campaign “very much ongoing”.
The campaign is part of the residents’ group, Action Against Jameson Road Landfill which has amassed over 2,500 members. Activity in the group includes concerns over the site and locals stating how bad the smell has been from week to week.
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.”
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