Council calls on Government to ensure permanent capping of Walleys Quarry landfill
The borough council has outlined its latest position which it hopes will help lead to the swift, full and permanent capping and restoration of Walleys Quarry – at no cost to local council taxpayers.
Despite its limited enforcement powers, the borough council’s decisive actions over several years have played an instrumental role in the controversial landfill ultimately being ordered to permanently close by the Environment Agency, in November 2024, following years of widescale complaints from residents about offensive smells of hydrogen sulphide, and other landfill gases, affecting their quality of life.
Now that the site operator, Walleys Quarry Ltd, has since gone into liquidation, the council is now refocusing its efforts and calling on the Government to make sure that the actions required are delivered to ensure the landfill is safe and does not present a current or future risk of pollution or harm to public health.
Council Leader Simon Tagg said:
Even though the council wasn’t the statutory regulator of Walleys Quarry, it stepped in on behalf of local residents and took several significant steps to address long-standing odour and environmental issues which plagued them for a long time.
The landfill might now be closed – a major milestone nonetheless – but the issue hasn’t just gone away; much more still needs to be done over the long-term to ensure that it never again becomes a public health hazard, or disrupts residents’ lives, and the council will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure this happens.
While I welcome recent works on site to rectify operator failures, I call again on the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Steve Reed, to confirm that a public inquiry will take place into what happened – including the Environment Agency’s role as regulator – while requesting a guarantee that remediation costs will be fully met by the Government, if not the Environment Agency, so that the expense of putting things right don’t fall on local taxpayers under any circumstances.
I’ll also be asking Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Adam Jogee for his assistance in calling on the Government to play an active role in the safe restoration and remediation of the site, which involves engaging with partners through an established group, as well as supporting my plea for an inquiry.”
Following a motion tabled at last night’s Full Council, proposed by the Council Leader, the council is writing to the Environment Agency asking for their commitment in ensuring real and meaningful financial support is provided for ongoing restoration costs, continuous monitoring of the site using existing mobile monitoring facilities and a public announcement outlining their position by the end of September.
Meanwhile, the council has agreed to continue pursuing the directors of Walleys Quarry Ltd, via company liquidators, in relation to their failure to properly manage the site which has left a blight on Silverdale.
It’s also writing to the new leadership of Staffordshire County Council asking them to join in lobbying for the desired outcomes.