Council seeks permission for landfill legal action

Walleys Quarry Ltd urged the council to keep talking rather than taking legal action

A local authority is asking for government permission to take legal action against the operators of a stinking landfill site.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council previously told Walleys Quarry landfill bosses they had failed to control emissions properly, and were considered in breach of a notice requiring them to take action.

The council must get permission for the move from the environment secretary as the head of the department which oversees regulation of landfill sites.

The landfill operator urged the council to reconsider its decision to pursue legal action and asked it to discuss concerns directly.

Simon McEneny, interim chief executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said the council would be writing to Environment Secretary Steve Barclay in the next few days to request approval.

He said the authority would then continue preparing a case against the site operators for "creating or allowing statutory odour nuisance.”

The council served an abatement notice in August 2021 after thousands of complaints, requiring the company to control the odour nuisance from landfill operations at the site.

Walleys Quarry Ltd contested the action, but dropped its appeal following mediation.

The abatement notice then became enforceable in March 2023.

Under its agreement with council, the company must control odour problems by “the best practicable means” and publicise information about what it is doing there.

Wholehearted support

Council leader Simon Tagg said the authority had been gathering evidence and that councillors did not have powers to influence any legal action.

“I wholeheartedly support the action officers have taken so far,” he said.

He added: “It is wrong that residents continue to suffer the gas odours in their own homes, wrong that they feel unable to let their children play in their gardens and I want them to know that the council is doing all it can within its limited powers to hold them to account.”

A spokesperson for Walleys Quarry called for the authority to discuss its concerns with the company and said it refuted the allegations.

“Should the council proceed, we will of course consider our response under the advice of our legal team,” the firm said.

It added that it had made "demonstrable, substantial and sustained progress" with capping at the site and minimising emissions.

"We continue to use best practicable means with the eventual objective of ceasing landfill operations and completing restoration onsite,” it said.