Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has said legal action against the operators of Walleys Quarry is expected to be initiated by the end of this month.
The local authority is preparing legal action against Walleys Quarry Ltd for alleged breaches of an Abatement Notice, which obliges the operator to not create or allow statutory odour nuisance.
The move comes after the council was granted permission to proceed by Steve Reed, Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), at the end of July.
The Council needed Government permission as DEFRA oversees the Environment Agency (EA), which is responsible for regulating the landfill site in Silverdale.
Gordon Mole, Chief Executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said: “We are moving as quickly as possible in a complex situation.
“There are very few precedents for taking legal action against an operator regulated by a Government agency, so there is a great deal of legal advice and preparation involved, however I believe we will be ready to take the next step by the end of October.”
The announcement follows Full Council’s consideration of a report by a special scrutiny committee into the situation at Walleys Quarry.
The special committee, sitting in public, was established to hear the effect on the community, question whether it could have been resolved previously and to ask what could be done to end the problem now.
Its members heard more than 11 hours of evidence from the Environment Agency (EA), UK Health Security Agency, community groups and others, and considered numerous additional written statements.
While the first recommendation was support for the proposal that the site to be closed, capped and restored, the scrutiny committee’s recommendations included:
- supporting the Borough Council’s preparation of legal action against the site operator;
- investigating whether the size of the restoration bond deposited by the operators would be sufficient if it was needed;
- taking samples of the core to understand the content;
- reiterating the Council’s call for a Government-led public inquiry into the EA’s role as a regulator and its handling of the site;
- implementing a uniform recording system at GP surgeries to better understand illnesses and conditions arising from exposure;
- independent monitoring of site emissions to restore public confidence in air quality data.
