Years of austerity has left the Environment Agency unable to protect residents from landfills in the way it would like
Local authorities believe the Environment Agency is best-placed to tackle landfills. But years of austerity means they can't necessarily provide the level of protection that they want to.
The Environment Agency should be given stronger powers to deal with landfill sites ‘that bring daily misery’ to residents.
That is the verdict from one northern MP whose constituents are claiming to be suffering from serious public health consequences from a landfill site.
The Jameson Road landfill in Fleetwood has been slapped with two suspension notices in as many years due to the high volume of complaints the Environment Agency receives.
A petition has been set up by local campaigners that calls for foul-smelling landfills in residential areas to close. It’s on 9,600 of the required 10,000 signatures for a government response. You can sign it here.
But local politicians believe they are legally powerless to directly intervene on behalf of residents and the Environment Agency has to follow a set process and give operators Transwaste the opportunity to remedy the situation.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Blackpool North and Fleetwood Labour MP Lorraine Beavers said: “What can the Government do to ensure that the Environment Agency has much stronger powers to deal with landfill sites that bring daily misery to residents, such as those living in my constituency?”
Mary Creagh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “There is an ongoing investigation into the cause of odour issues that have impacted the community in Fleetwood, which escalated in January 2025.
“The Environment Agency has told me that it expects odour issues to reduce within the next seven days. Should that not occur, it will consider any and all appropriate regulatory interventions to reduce the impact on the community.”
But that question was asked in February this year and a suspension notice has been issued and lifted by the Environment Agency in that time with residents still impacted.
Dr David Megson, Reader in Chemistry and Environmental Forensics at Manchester Metropolitan University, agrees that the Environment Agency needs backing with the powers to protect residents.
He said that it seems like a lot of resources have been stripped out of the department over the previous two decades, which means they are unable to do all of the work that they want to. Then, when the Environment Agency is unable to properly intervene, it can lead to residents gathering their own evidence which may invariably be biased or not follow the same levels of rigour.
He told The Lead: “They’re often in a position of wanting to do more but not having the budget to do because the previous government has stripped back so much funding from those bodies that they’re not well enough equipped to do the job that they want to do.
“They need more funding.
“They also probably need stronger powers and a bit of protection. These regulations should be based on the precautionary principle - which is that you don’t do something if you think there’s a chance it’s going to cause harm. You prove it is safe and then you do it.
“But a lot of the time it seems to be flipped the other way around where it’s up to residents, or activists, to prove that there is a problem before anything can be done about it. And when that happens it’s complicated because nobody seems unbiased in that assessment, whether that’s produced by the public or by the industry.”
The question over whether the landfill is directly causing physical health issues for residents is hotly debated. Residents point to nosebleeds, nausea and migraines as common symptoms that demonstrate that it is.
Jess Brown, 34, lives with her eight-year-old daughter Maliha and her mother, 65, in the centre of Fleetwood.
Maliha has had minor issues with asthma in the past but since January - when complaints really began to spike - has had to take time off school for issues she hasn’t experienced before.
Jess has been campaigning passionately about the issue locally and wants the site closed, believing a combination of Transwaste along with local authorities Wyre Council and Lancashire County Council are failing to keep people safe.
Jess told The Lead: “She’s had about five weeks off school since January. There’s not really any explanation for why she’s been ill.
“Her breathing goes really bad and she’s having to go for a blood test.
“My mum has severe COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and has been very ill, coinciding with the stench. Something needs to be done urgently.
“She’s had chest infections, she’s not been able to leave home, her breathing has been worse.”
Transwaste have stated their belief, citing UKHSA data gathered in the summer of 2024, that the landfill is not causing or worsening any health issues. But more recent UKHSA data about what is coming from the landfill remains elusive.
The Environment Agency maintains its objective is not to close the landfill but ensure it works without impacting residents within the proper laws and guidelines. They have said their ability to be fully transparent with residents is hampered by the open investigation they have against Transwaste.
Dr Barbara Kneale, who is campaigning for the closure of the Jameson Road site, told The Lead: “The UKHSA say that the level of hydrogen sulphide coming off the plant is below levels where it can cause danger to health but that it is detectable by nose. However, there are other things coming off there that aren’t being monitored.
“We live in a deprived area. We have twice the national average of respiratory problems, and mental health issues, which really should have been taken into account when this site was reopened and it wasn’t.”
This isn’t a new problem. Studies by Oxford University found the areas within two kilometres of the existing waste sites in England tend to be more deprived than the average. One contributing factor to this is the cost of the land to the operators. More rural land is often subject to greater protections and red tape that makes it unviable.
When Mary Creagh replied to Lorraine Beavers back in February, she said the public health consequences of the site were obvious. She said: “My heart goes out to my hon. Friend’s constituents, who are clearly suffering terrible public health consequences from the stink at that site.”
The issue of slow resolutions to landfill sites is not new.
In November 2024, the operators Walleys Quarry in Silverdale, Staffordshire, were served with a closure notice from the Environment Agency.
But that didn’t stop thousands of complaints being made over Christmas and into January 2025.
Residents described the smell as ‘eggy, oniony, dense, thick, acrid, nauseating and intense’, while others blame hydrogen sulphide (H2S) emissions from the site for health issues, such as headaches, nosebleeds, nausea and migraines.
Those symptoms will be familiar to people living in Fleetwood who are being told that the landfill is not posing a health risk.
They will not be comforted by the ten-year-plus campaign residents had to undertake before Walleys Quarry was eventually served with the closure notice.
In September 2021, the High Court ruled that emissions from the site, which is surrounded by homes and businesses, exacerbated the underlying health conditions of a local five-year-old boy, although the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling two months later. That year, more than 65,000 complaints were made about the site, as residents from miles around reported the stench.
The same reports about the impact of Walleys Quarry - of nosebleeds, migraines and people leaving the area - are being repeated in 2025 in Fleetwood.
Staffordshire County Council ultimately commissioned a report to look at the health impacts of the Walleys Quarry landfill on residents.
That report would read: “The continuing exposure of the population to elevated levels of hydrogen sulphide that are experienced by individuals in the vicinity of the Walleys Quarry site has resulted in people experiencing a range of short-term health symptoms, including headaches, nausea, dizziness, eye and skin irritation, wheezing and coughing.
“The UKHSA has highlighted that the risk to long-term (lifetime) health cannot be excluded, where concentrations are above the long-term health-based guidance value.”
Campaigners want to see local authority Wyre Council - who have pointed to their own healthy finances in recent weeks - commission their own independent report.
But the reality in 2025 is that if a landfill site opens and is problematic for residents - the journey to any kind of practical resolution is long and arduous. And stronger powers for the Environment Agency would help quicken that process considerably.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency told The Lead that landfill sites are routinely inspected and the majority of operators take their responsibilities seriously.
They added: “If operators fail to observe the strict requirements set out in their permits, we will not hesitate to take tough action to ensure they comply – including suspending their operation when needed.
“The Environment Agency has a duty to ensure that landfill sites are permitted and operated so that there is no unacceptable risk of pollution to the environment or harm to human health by operators managing landfill emissions.”
About the author: Luke is the senior editor for The Lead’s northern titles and has been reporting on the Jameson Road landfill for The Blackpool Lead. He is also a co-editor of hyperlocal site Blog Preston.
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