Decision details

The Leader introduced a report regarding the latest position regarding odour issues at Walleys Quarry and asked the Chief Executive to provide an update.

The Chief Executive advised that during September there had been one complaint.  The site would continue to be monitored and the public were encouraged to continue to report any odours coming from the site.   Odour assessments were carried out during September and no odour was detected across the seven locations where the assessments were taken.

Members’ attention was drawn to paragraph 2.13 of the report which outlined the progress with ongoing works at the site. 

It was now a year since the Committee of Inquiry findings and the recommendations were listed at paragraph 2.30 of the report, along with a progress update.  Recommendation ‘0’  happened on 28 November, 2024.

The Leader stated that the photographs in the report, showing the site largely capped, were encouraging and the caps were of a good standard.  Looking to the future, low complaints were being seen in this recovery phase.

It was now all about the government stepping in with funding for the site to be fully capped and restored.  There was also the call for a public inquiry, however, a letter from Mary Creagh CBE, the new Minister for Environment gave a negative response to the request.  In addition, no response had been received from Adam Jogee MP.

Councillor Sweeney, in response to the letter from the Minister for Environment, was disappointed with the sentence ‘ I am not convinced of the benefits of holding such an inquiry and believe that our efforts are best focussed on addressing the problems at the site.’   The problem could not be unique so a public inquiry to find out what went wrong with Walleys Quarry and the Environment Agency would be an excellent way of stopping it happening again.

Councillor Heesom agreed with the comments made and was also disappointed with the letter from the Minister and lack of support from the local MP.

Resolved:    That the contents of the update report be noted.

Watch the debate here