Anniversary call for Walleys Quarry action
One year on from Walleys Quarry being issued with a closure notice, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council continues to press Government to resolve the long-term future of the site.
The Environment Agency (EA) issued the closure notice to Walleys Quarry Ltd on 28 November 2024. The site operator, previously part of RED Industries, subsequently entered liquidation in February and abandoned the landfill.
Since then, the EA has been managing the site to prevent the possibility of pollution and odour complaints to the council have fallen from 4,300 in the first 10 months of 2024, to a few each month.
Simon Tagg, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said:
We are pleased that the horrendous odour problems have drastically improved since the EA took charge.
However, the need remains to agree the long-term situation at Walleys Quarry so that residents have the certainty they need to live their lives without worry.
The site needs permanently capping and restoring, but the financial burden of that should not fall on local taxpayers.
It was the Government that overruled local planning authorities and authorised the site’s use for certain types of waste, so we feel it is for Government to bear its responsibilities.”
Although the EA was the main regulator for the site when it was in operation, after years of residents suffering terrible odour problems, the Borough Council had set aside up to £1 million to gather evidence and retain experts to take on Walleys Quarry Ltd.
After legal success in which the operator accepted it was the source of ‘community complaint’ and that it must control odour problems by ‘the best practicable means’, the council had been preparing fresh legal action over further breaches when the operator entered liquidation.
Simon Tagg added:
The questions of how this site came to be the source of misery for residents, and how then the problem was able to continue over several years, need answering.
Not just to provide an explanation to those who suffered for so long here, but so that the same miserable situation does not happen again elsewhere.
A Public Inquiry is the only way to understand actions and events and require those involved to give evidence.”