Landfill site stinks up our homes, say protesters

Eirlys Doncaster and Lou Lavis were two of the crowd of people protesting outside Pembrokeshire council

Fed-up locals claim rotten smells coming from a landfill site have been stinking up their homes for months.

Between 40-50 people gathered outside Pembrokeshire council's offices to protest against the stench coming from Withyhedge landfill site in Haverfordwest.

Some said they were often unable to open their windows and were concerned about the impact the smell could have on the value of their homes.

The operator of the landfill site, RLM, said it recognised the odour had not “completely diminished".

Some locals said they were concerned about the effect the smell could have on the value of their homes

Locals said they were told the odour, which has affected the area for the last nine months, would be gone by 5 April.

Colin Barnett, lead campaigner of Stop the Stink, said: “We were really hopeful after waiting two months for this plan that this would resolve it, but the smell is still here.

“We’re really disappointed that they’ve failed the residents once more.”

Lou Lavis, 46, of Spittal, Pembrokeshire, said the situation was “dire”.

“You wake up in the morning and you open the door and it just hits you. It takes your breath away. People have reported that they’ve been physically sick," she said.

“We’ve all been very patient after being told that things would be resolved, but to be honest it’s just got worse.”

Paul Davies, the Senedd Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire, wrote to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and First Minister Vaughan Gething asking for RLM to have its license revoked.

Mr Davies said: “This has been going on for months. People have been unable to open their windows, people have developed coughs and headaches because of this terrible odour.

"This situation cannot continue. It’s unacceptable that my constituents have to suffer like this and that’s why I want to see firm action taking place."

A spokesperson for RLM said it had completed the engineering works requested by NRW and it was “confident” works would be completed within the next few weeks.

“RML shares the community’s disappointment and can assure them that the odours will subside further once all additional work is completed," they said.

"NRW has carried out a site inspection on completed and additional engineering and we are now awaiting the report."

NRW said it "acknowledged" and "empathised" with the community about the "odour issue" and its "partners are working extremely hard" to resolve it.

It added that it was monitoring air quality and odour.