Silverdale is a village in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.
For years the nearby landfill at Walleys Quarry has been the subject of thousands of complaints about the stench emanating from the site, possibly caused by the unpermitted dumping of plasterboard waste.
In 2021, a mother won a High Court battle against the Environment Agency for failing to properly regulate the site, which was accused of emitting hydrogen sulphide that risked shortening her son's life. However, the EA successfully appealed. Legal action is ongoing.
Walley’s Quarry Ltd bought the site from Lafarge in 2016.
Last year, Walleys Quarry Ltd won a High Court injunction against protestors, but also withdrew an appeal against a nuisance abatement notice issued by Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council.
As part of the settlement, Walleys Quarry will pay Newcastle-under-Lyme £400,000 towards the cost of responding to the appeal and £60,000 to enable the council to continue monitoring levels of hydrogen sulphide in the community.Cllr Martin Hamilton, Newcastle-under-Lyme’s chief executive, said the agreement was “hugely significant”, while Nigel Bowen, Walleys Quarry’s CEO, said his company was pleased to reach “a level of mutual understanding and agreement” with the council.Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill, a former Supreme Court Justice, led the mediation process. In a statement, he said: “Walleys Quarry Limited acknowledge that the site has been the source of community complaint and the council acknowledge that Walleys Quarry Limited have improved their operational practices such that odour emissions have recently reduced significantly and best practicable means are currently in place.”The Environment Agency reports weekly on odour emissions from the site, measuring against WHO annoyance guidelines. In the last six months, the Agency produced 25 reports, each time including measurements from four locations. During this period, “just eight” of the 100 reporting figures exceeded the WHO’s guidance levels by 10%, Walleys Quarry says, and none exceeded 20%.
However, it now turns out that that the EA has been under reporting emissions:
Local MP, Aaron Bell, who has previously raised concerns about the site, said the community had been "badly let down".Results from a previous monitoring exercise between 2017 and 2019 were "also clearly now incorrect", the Conservative MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme claimed."Given that the EA relied on these results to justify to me why they would not install more monitoring - before eventually realising the stink was so bad they would have to - the community was particularly badly let down in this regard."He said the error had "dented public confidence" in the agency and he would be raising the issue in the House of Commons.
We absolutely recognise the distress, the concerns and for many of you the anger that you feel at this situation and we are sorry that this has happened. What we have been doing as soon as we confirmed there was an issue, the EA spoke to the UKHSA so they could understand the implications of this and make sure between us we were given the best possible information to health partners so they were able to give the best possible advice to you.I also want to acknowledge that for many of you in the community trust in the EA was already low and this will have absolutely dented confidence further. What we wanted to do and what we are endeavouring to do and will continue to do is to be as open with you as we possibly can about what we know and about what we are doing.
.@NewsNBC & @SoTCityCouncil are calling for a public inquiry into what they've described as a massive failure by the Environment Agency. The body that regulates the hydrogen sulphide levels at Walleys Quarry, #Silverdale revealed levels have been under reported. pic.twitter.com/SCBKiRZPo6
— BBC Radio Stoke (@BBCRadioStoke) October 9, 2023
