Issue - meetings

That:

(a) the latest position regarding problem odours in the borough be noted;

(b) the progress made on the actions arising from the extraordinary meeting of full Council on 18th March 2021 be noted; and

(c) the programme of work as set out in the report be endorsed.

Cabinet considered a report on the on-going odour problem that was affecting the Borough and was widely believed to come from Walley’s Quarry Landfill Site in Silverdale. 

The Chief Executive introduced the report. The odour issues had been the subject of the Extraordinary Council meeting on 18^th March.   A number of actions had been taken following that meeting and the Chief Executive updated:

-       The Environment Agency (EA) had been requested to require RED to suspend operations.  They had responded that this action would have little practical effect as RED had suspended accepting new waste in March.  The EA also explained that odour issues were from older waste that was decomposing rather than new waste;

-       The CCG and Public Health England (PHE) had been requested to arrange health screening to those who were impacted.  PHE had advised they were to use a process called Real Time Syndromic Surveillance; and were looking at accessing information directly from GPs.  The CCG was working with Keele University to analyse historic health data and Air Quality data.

-       Aaron Bell MP was to meet with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs regarding both the odour issues in general and the Council’s request that an investigation be held into the EA’s handling of the permit relating to Walley’s Quarry.

-       Neighbouring Councils were in support of the Council’s action.

The Chief Executive then updated on each of the recommendations from the Scrutiny Review which were specifically for action by the Council:

-       Recommendation 1: undertake a review and appraisal of EA monitoring data and work with the EA for any future monitoring – Air quality consulting company Ricardo had been commissioned to review the first two EA monitoring campaigns.  Their findings were set out in the report and had been shared with the EA.  They concluded that the EA monitoring focused on the health risk rather than the associated nuisance impact arising from odours and hydrogen sulphide. 

-       Recommendation 2: prepare and undertake air pollution monitoring, the results of which shall be made available on the Council’s website – the Council was to jointly fund with the EA and County Council an additional two monitoring units.  The data would be reviewed weekly by Public Health and rated as Red, Amber, Green against World Health Organisation thresholds.  It would be published after a validation process and be shared with agencies; it was important that data was validated to give confidence.  A similar approach would be taken to rate odour in terms of nuisance ratings.

-       Recommendation 3: request confirmation from the EA as to the odour source(s) and specify appropriate method of control.  As noted in the report, there had been recent breaches of the EA permit including one significant breach.  The Council and EA had also been informed by RED that they had identified an alternative source of the odours but further detail was yet to be supplied.  The EA had identified specific measures to be undertaken by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 105