World Environmental Health Day 2025 - Newcastle Borough Council and Walleys Quarry Landfill Site case study

Nesta Barker, Service Director – Regulatory Services at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council presents this case study on a long-running odour incident related to a landfill site near the town.

The Walleys Quarry Landfill site odour incident started with an upturn in complaints in December 2020. From then until into 2025 the Council received in excess of 35,000 complaints from the community. The landfill site is located within 100m of residential houses and businesses.

The complaints related to a rotten-egg, sulphurous odour, which affected people in their homes, and health related impacts such as headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, and breathing difficulties were reported. Such symptoms are associated with hydrogen sulphide gas, which has an extremely low detection threshold and is very unpleasant.

The landfill site has an Environmental Permit to operate and is regulated under Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 by the Environment Agency as the principal regulator. Environmental Health maintain their legal duty to investigate and action any statutory nuisance under section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The investigation originally commenced during the covid pandemic when there were restrictions in place for entering people’s homes. Officers completed ‘odour tours’ at set locations to undertake 5 min-monitoring. Once restrictions were lifted, odour assessments both inside and outside homes were completed, with officers rating the odour intensity between 0 (no odour) and 6 (extremely strong odour).

Officer monitoring was supported by air quality mobile monitoring facilities; up to 4 were located in the community by the Environment Agency which monitored a range of pollutants including hydrogen sulphide and methane. Officers’ visits included the use of a hand-held Jerome’s to monitor hydrogen sulphide levels.

A statutory odour nuisance was established and an abatement notice served requiring the abatement of the nuisance and the prohibition of the recurrence. The abatement notice was appealed; more than 12 months later, with a four-week hearing scheduled, the operator agreed to explore mediation. Subsequently they accepted the statutory nuisance and the notice was endorsed by court. The abatement notice came into effect in March 2023.

Investigations and complaint patterns identified that the winter period and cold, still weather conditions saw increased odour. Targeted out-of-hours officer investigations were undertaken and in January and February 2024 a breach of the abatement notice was established. Due to not being the primary regulator, permission was sought and obtained in July 2024 from the Secretary of State to commence legal proceedings.

In November 2024, the Environment Agency served a Closure Notice on the landfill operator, requiring the cessation of waste imports and steps to be taken to initiate closure including a Landfill Closure and Aftercare Plan. This notice was appealed and Environmental Health joined the appeal process which was due to be heard by the Planning Inspectorate. In February 2025, the operator entered liquidation, and the liquidators subsequently disclaimed the company’s interest in the environmental permit(s) and the land has transferred to the Crown.

Since then, the Environment Agency has used its discretionary powers to undertake works to prevent serious pollution. Odour levels have reduced significantly, as have complaints and the impact on the community, with 4 complaints received in August 2025.

Environmental Health are now focussed on providing a long-term sustainable restoration proposal for the landfill to protect the local community from further odour issues.

This has been a long-running and high-profile case which has had a significant impact on this area and highlighted the vital work that Environmental Health teams carry out to protect the health and wellbeing of their communities.

Further information can be found on Newcastle Borough Council’s dedicated Walleys Quarry webpage here: https://www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/walleys-quarry

It is also a story that has received widespread media attention – a selection of stories are below:

These charts highlight the data behind the case study:

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