Clayton Hall landfill: 'Disgusting smell is back, say residents

Trevor and Margaret Lawson say the smell is "disgusting"

Residents close to a landfill site say their lives are being made a misery by a stink caused by stockpiled waste.

A strong odour blighted the lives of residents near Clayton Hall landfill in Whittle-le-Woods, Chorley, in 2018.

The problem was solved when operator Quercia capped off the problem area, but residents have said it is back.

Quercia said they were temporarily piling up waste while waiting for permission from the Environment Agency to use a particular part of the site.

Quercia said they are temporarily piling up waste while waiting for permission from the Environment Agency to use a particular part of the site

A spokesman said: "The site continues to operate a range of industry standard odour suppression systems and we would ask any residents to report any concerns relating to possible odour from the site to our team on 01257 273311."

Trevor Lawson, whose house backs on to the site, said more and more waste was being brought to the site and "now the mound has got extremely large and smells extremely bad on most days".

"[The] smell seems to linger in our back garden and I was nearly physically sick the other morning from the disgusting smell," he said.

His wife Margaret added: "It's always in the back of my mind what to do next.

"We don't seem to be making much headway even though we report it to the Environment Agency.

"They are just like a toothless agency really, they don't seem to do anything for us."

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

The Environment Agency said it was investigating and would "take steps to minimise the impacts to the community and the local environment".

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.

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

The company must stop accepting landfill at the site by 2028 - but will control odours until 2035.