Walleys Quarry legal action ends after company’s collapse

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council was preparing legal action against Walleys Quarry Ltd for failing to properly control emissions from the landfill in Silverdale, in breach of a court-agreed Abatement Notice.

But now that the site operator’s business is in the process of being liquidated, the prosecution cannot be continued.

Gordon Mole, Chief Executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said:

For legal reasons the action for breaching the Abatement Notice had to be against the site operator.
 

Now that the company no longer exists, the action cannot continue.
 

It is frustrating that we no longer have the opportunity to see the operator in court but when we initiated the legal action the site was fully operational and generating thousands of complaints from the community.
 

Although we are not the main regulator for the site, we wanted to do all we could to help residents within our limited powers.”

In August 2021, the Borough Council served an Abatement Notice against Walleys Quarry Ltd, requiring it to control the odour nuisance caused by landfill operations.

The landfill operators contested the Notice, but dropped its appeal following mediation, and, as a result, an Abatement Notice was implemented in March 2023, obliging the operator to not create or allow statutory odour nuisance.

The Abatement Notice also saw the operator acknowledge that its site was the source of ‘community complaint’ and that it must control odour problems by ‘the best practicable means’.

In April 2024 the council notified Walleys Quarry Ltd, which was then a subsidiary of Red Industries Ltd, that the site operator had failed to properly control odour emissions and that, consequently, the authority was preparing legal action.

An appeal by Walleys Quarry Ltd against a closure notice issued by the Environment Agency in November, and due to be heard by the Planning Inspectorate later this year, has also been cancelled.

Since the operator went into liquidation the Environment Agency has been monitoring the site and overseeing essential remedial work. Complaints about odour have fallen dramatically in that time, with 41 in March and 24 in April, compared to 1,620 in January.

The Borough Council had set aside up to £1 million to gather evidence and retain experts to take on Walleys Quarry Ltd.

Gordon Mole added:

Pursuing this complex legal action has cost around a third of what it might have done, and there is no doubt that it was the right thing to do.
 

When we acted on behalf of residents there was no sign or promise of the EA’s closure notice being issued, and the day-to-day life of residents blighted by this odour was terrible.
 

We had to use the limited powers available to us as best we could on behalf of the community.”