Council to push for 'smelly' landfill closure

A council has said it will push to have a landfill site closed down, because of complaints about smells.

People living near the Granville site in Telford, Shropshire, have said there is a "vile eggy odour" coming from it.

At a meeting on Thursday, members of Telford and Wrekin Council agreed to write to the government to ask the Environment Agency to "issue a closure notice".

The operator, Potters (Midlands) Ltd, has been approached by the BBC, but has yet to respond.

The Environment Agency has previously said it was working with the firm to resolve these issues.

The landfill site closed as a household recycling centre in 2016, but is licensed to operate privately until 2030.

People nearby have complained of having to keep their windows closed to keep the smell out, and that it gets worse in the summer.

A motion was put forward by the Conservative councillor for Priorslee, Rachael Tyrrell, calling for the site to be closed down sooner than 2030.

She said it was an important issue, adding that residents had "suffered terribly".

Richard Overton, deputy leader of the council, said: "Their voices have been heard, loud and clear.

"We will be as robust as we can be, but we have no powers to close it ourselves."

He said the council was due to meet the Environment Agency to discuss the landfill site next week and that the local councillors could attend.

Vinnie Pallett, who lives in nearby Redhill, said: "If the wind is not blowing, you cannot open your windows.

"It really is so unpleasant you don't want to be outside."

He added that the smell often "lingers" in homes and that Redhill had become notorious" for the smell, putting off would-be homebuyers.

Ms Tyrrell said she had received a lot of complaints over the past year from residents who were "fed up".

She said there had been a lot of meetings over the issue, but they had failed to resolve the issue, so people in the area just wanted the site closed.

This news was partly gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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