Environment Agency's legal fight against Walleys Quarry gets backing of local council
It comes as odour complaint figures soar.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is throwing its weight behind the Environment Agency’s legal fight against the operators of Walleys Quarry – as odour complaint figures soar.
Site operators Walleys Quarry Ltd is mounting a legal challenge to the EA’s order to close the landfill after years of foul gas odours plaguing nearby communities.
Now Cabinet is due to endorse a decision by officers to use a substantial amount of evidence gathered by the Council to support the EA at the appeal inquiry, which is due to be heard by the Planning Inspectorate.
Simon Tagg, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, has also written a personal letter to the Planning Inspectorate in support of the EA’s closure notice.
He said: “Despite not being the main regulator this council has worked tirelessly for residents and elected members have unanimously endorsed that the landfill site should be closed, capped and restored.
“Now that the EA has issued a closure notice which gives a route to achieving that objective, the council backs it wholeheartedly on behalf of the community.
“We will be using reams of evidence to support the EA’s position, including air quality readings from handheld monitors, officer assessments, complaint data and, of course, details of the Abatement Notice won by the council and in which the operator accepted that the landfill had been a source of ‘community complaint’.”
Cllr Tagg added: “The Borough Council has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with residents for years in this battle against the foul gas odours.
“It proves to me that that local councils, with locally elected councillors close to their communities, are better placed to fight for their interests than the larger super-councils that the Government is trying to force upon us.”