Town centre question time session for Walleys Quarry residents

The public drop-in session on 1st December is being held at Castle House, in the centre of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Residents affected by Walleys Quarry can ask questions face-to-face with officials at the latest public meeting.

The drop-in session takes place on Wednesday, 1^st December, at Castle House in Newcastle town centre.

Senior officers from the Environment Agency (EA), Staffordshire County Council, the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England), Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Staffordshire Police will be available to answer any questions and explain the latest developments.

Open from 4pm to 7pm, the event takes place in the Garden and Astley Rooms in the Castle House civic building on Barracks Road, ST5 1BL.

There will be no fixed presentation or speeches, and residents can drop-in at any time during the opening hours and speak directly to representatives of the councils and agencies at different tables.

Numbers in the venue will be monitored to avoid over-crowding and other Covid-related measures will be in place to ensure the health and well-being of all those attending.

Simon Tagg, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said:

Foul odours coming from Walleys Quarry remain a significant issue for many borough residents and businesses who are severely affected.

The Council takes this very seriously – it is continuing to work very closely with partners on a daily basis to monitor the situation and resolve the ongoing problems as soon as possible. It has served the landfill operators with a statutory nuisance abatement notice legally requiring them to stop the smell. This has been appealed, triggering a legal process in court.

This is a complex and evolving situation. The Council is committed to keeping residents informed and updated at every opportunity. Now that Covid restrictions have lifted, it’s great that another drop-in session can go ahead where people can ask questions directly.”

Alan White, Leader of Staffordshire County Council, added:

Residents have told us that they value these opportunities to meet face-to-face and question those working to resolve the problem and I would encourage residents affected by this terrible situation to come along and hear for themselves what is happening.”

Notes to Editors

Produced by Staffordshire County Council on behalf of Staffordshire Resilience Forum (SRF).  

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent has a strong and well-established Local Resilience Forum which works hard through partners to protect the public.

The SRF is a multi-agency group working towards a common mission and objectives. Representatives include:

• All Category 1 responders in the SRF area – emergency services, local authorities, local health economy including acute and mental health trusts, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), NHSE and the Environment Agency
• Relevant local Category 2 responders – Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), National Highways, HSE, utility and transport companies, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities RED Government Liaison Officer
• Military
• Specialists or other stakeholders as required e.g. prisons
• Civil Contingencies Unit as providers of support to multi-agency planning, response and recovery.

Walleys Quarry Limited is currently working to deliver the actions the Environment Agency have instructed them to carry out to manage the odour and landfill gas originating from the site. This includes:

• Developing an action plan to improve the gas management and gas collection, including the drilling of 83 gas wells.
• Activity to cap the steep flanks of the landfill. This means nearly 70% of the site will be permanently or temporarily capped. Capping is important as landfill gas from the site needs to be better ‘contained’ on the site, rather than escaping off the site. Once contained, it can be processed and destroyed through the gas management system.