RESIDENTS have told how they have to endure a horrendous stench as they live next to a foul landfill dump that pumps out clouds of gas.
Locals in Silverdale, Newcastle-Under-Lyme have been forced to tolerate the “omnipresent” pong which smells like “bad eggs” for over a decade.
They have banded together to form a ‘Stop The Stink’ campaign – but feel like no one, including the Environment Agency, cares.
Geology graduate Rob Glenday, 25, has lived for three years with a view of the mountains of landfill rubbish from his front doorstep.
He told the Sun: “The frequency of the smell is subsiding a bit, but in the mornings and if dry overnight you do get the odour.
“It’s horrible as soon as you step out of the front door in the morning, nobody wants to breathe it in.
“It cannot be good for anyone’s health, or the environment.”
Across the way from Rob, who lives close to an Environment Agency monitoring unit beside a deserted children’s playground, is Christopher Clarke, 21, who is fed up of the “omnipresent smell.”
He said said: “It used to be much worse than it is now. It’s still omnipresent and terrible.
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“We live close to the site, but you can smell it quite far away.”
His neighbour Hilary Beech, 55, a civil servant, who purchased her four bedroom new build home 14 years ago, said: "It’s like bad eggs. It comes more when it is cold and when it’s frosty you smell it even more.
“Everybody now knows about the issue, but it wasn’t known when we moved in 14 years ago.
“We’ve spent a lot of money on the house, so haven’t thought about moving, but it doesn’t help property values.”
On Mill Street in Silverdale, householders have suffered the stench for more than a decade, but some say the pong has got worse as the landfill became more popular.
'ANIMAL CARCASSES'
Charles Wheawall, 75, and his wife Barbara, 73, have lived in their neat semi-detached for 52 years, but it’s only the last decade or so when the old brick quarry was turned into a landfill that they’ve suffered with the stench.
Charles, who still works part-time in a pottery works, said: “It’s a blight on the community here. If you came to sell, who would want to move in with that awful smell in the air.
“You wake up in the morning and the first thing you smell is that place. At the weekends inparticular, you can see the gas wafting out of the place when you walk past in the mornings.
“I reckon they’ve been putting animal carcasses into it as you see a lot of those wagons en route to sell chickens when you are on the nearby A49 – we’ve seen a lot of them in the last 12 months.”
Barbara, a retired school cook, added: “It's horrendous and cannot be good for anyone's health.”
Appalled by the stench one day, outraged Roxie Williams, 45, scrawled Stop The Stink on the side of her end terrace in Silverdale, but a local graffiti artist Gregor Greaves asked if he could adapt her artwork.
STOP THE STINK
Now the stunning mural featuring, the slogan Stop the Stink as well as children riding trikes wearing gas masks, a giant rat with a gas mask on and a bird cradling its dead mate in its wings among other iconic images of the hated landfill site.
Roxie said: “The last three years it’s been getting worse and worse. I’ve lived here 15 years and it’s a real problem.
“If a wave of the stench comes, dogs will try and dig into the ground to get away from it.”
Her neighbour Richard Oakfield, 64, is also concerned about the health effects on the community.
Richard said: “It needs closing down, this has been going on for years.
“I wake up in the mornings and have headaches and dizzy spells, I am convinced it’s something to do with what is in the air.
“It’s appalling – an overwhelming stench.”
HOSPITALISATIONS
On the High Street, barber Patrick James, who has worked at Roscillis for nine years, said: “The children and elderly are being hospitalised with illnesses and there are lots of people with sore eyes and bloody noses as a result of it.
“It’s serious if it’s aggravating people’s eyes and irritating their skin.
“I live on the Westlands estate about three miles away, so drive here and every day I leave work I have to clean the car windscreen as there is something on it. That must be a film of something from the landfill.”
The EA has been carrying out continuous air quality monitoring and enforcement action at Walleys Quarry since the start of 2021, following thousands of complaints from the public.
Operator Walleys Quarry Ltd has been carrying out works such as permanent capping and improvements to gas collection as part of efforts to tackle the odour problem.
An EA spokesman has confirmed that the letter from Professor McMillan has been received and that a response will be provided.
The EA spokesman said: "We have every sympathy with the local community and remain determined to tackle the problems at Walleys Quarry. We continue to work with the operator and our partners to do so.
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"I can confirm that Sir James Bevan received a letter from Professor Trevor McMillan, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, on 30 May 2022. A response will be provided in line with our customer service commitment. We are not able to comment further on the correspondence at this time.
"We continue to require Walleys Quarry Ltd to take effective action to secure sustained reduction in emissions from its site."
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