Llanddulas landfill site causing a stink

Mar 18 2010 by Richard Evans, North Wales Weekly News

A FOUL stench from a rubbish dump is making residents of a village feel so sick that they can’t eat.

Things have got so bad at the Llanddulas landfill site that a crisis meeting has been called between the company WRG and councillors.

Residents complain that rotting rubbish and methane gases emanating from the site are so bad it is putting people off food and stopping them being able to open doors and windows.

Fifteen months ago the smell led to the Environment Agency monitoring the situation, but still the smell has continued to affect the lives of people living and working in the village.

Caroline Dacon has run the Post Office in Llanddulas for the past 10 years and said the smell is unpleasant.

“It is really bad, like a chemical type smell,” she said.

“It’s about time somebody sorted it out. The last two or three years have been especially bad.”

Carol Williams, 66, lives in Llanddulas and agreed: “It smells like things are rotting, and it has got so much worse recently, you can smell it far more often.

“I phoned the manager of the quarry and he told me he couldn’t smell anything at all, which is unbelievable.”

Cllr Brenda Taylor said she had requested a meeting with the company directors.

“I have called for a meeting and insisted we have the directors there, not just the manager of the site who I feel is doing what he can with resources. We need the directors there,” she said.

“It is totally unacceptable. We did ask them to write a letter of apology to people, and we want it resolved.

“People can’t open doors or windows and some people are physically sick and don’t want to eat because of it.”

Nick Blake is the regional operations manager for WRG, who manage the landfill site, and responded: “We are continuing work on the site to reduce the potential for odour and have agreed a series of remedial actions with the Environment Agency which will be put in place over the next few weeks.

“We gave details of these plans to the community at the landfill liaison meeting on March 12 and works to install additional gas wells will begin on site next week.

“We will be reporting back to the Environment Agency on progress and anticipate that the work will be completed by mid-April and we are confident these actions will reduce the potential for odours arising from the landfill.”