Chorley landfill: 'Awful stench' from site to be managed

Protests have previously been held over the smell coming form the landfill site

Bad smells pouring from a controversial landfill site will continue to be managed with specialist equipment even after it closes, its operator has said.

Clayton Hall landfill in Whittle-le-Woods, Chorley, has been bombarded with complaints from residents about the "awful stench".

They staged protests, comparing the putrid smell to rotten eggs and gas.

Operator Quercia must stop accepting landfill there by 2028 - but will control odours until 2035.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the company has been granted permission to retain the infrastructure needed at the Lancashire site for what is described as "landfill gas and leachate management" for seven years after its closure.

At its worst in 2017 and 2018, the stench wafted across Whittle-le-Woods, Clayton-le-Woods and Leyland - even invading homes where the windows were firmly shut.

The problem was solved by Quercia who capped off the problem area.

The problem area has since been capped off to limit the odours

Lancashire County Council's development control committee gave the go-ahead to the extension after hearing that a time limit for on-site leachate tanks and gas engines had previously been set at 2028 - the point at which landfill activity at the former sand quarry must cease.

Once waste disposal stops, the active area of the landfill site will be capped and the plot restored within 12 months.

The proposed time extension received four objections, including from local residents who had been "plagued by flies, smells and dust that must be hazardous to health".

However, a report to the committee by County Hall planning officers said that because there would be no extension to the landfill operation beyond its already-approved cut off of 2028, the concerns raised by locals were "not relevant".

It added that the proposal to retain the associated infrastructure would actually reduce the likelihood of the problems that they highlighted.

Committee member Steve Holgate said that the plan would, if anything, be "positive".

"It will help manage what has been an unacceptable situation in the past, perhaps better than they've [previously] been able to," he added.

Quercia said on its website that "aftercare" of the landfill - which dates back to the 1960s - will continue until 2088.