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LEGAL ACTION CALL OVER TIP
BY ALAN YORK LEGAL action against a waste disposal firm was demanded today after it was served with a further order to clean up its act.
Waste Recycling Group (WRG), operator of the huge Welbeck landfill site near Wakefield, has been served with another Enforcement Notice by the Environment Agency – the second in three weeks.
A notice was also served on the company in July.
They relate to a giant compost heap on the sprawling tip site and follow complaints from residents living nearby about nauseating smells.
At the time, the Environment Agency warned that if composting odours were released from the site in the future, it would consider what further enforcement action could be taken, including prosecution.
Fiasco
Today local campaigner Paul Dainton, president of the action group Rats (Residents Against Toxic Tip), said the time had come for legal action.
"It should have been taken a long time ago," he said. "This is the fourth enforcement notice this year. It's a fiasco, a complete disgrace.
"If there had been four enforcement notices on an articulated lorry it would have been taken off the road. It's time some real action was taken."
The Enviroment Agency (EA) said the latest notice, served on Thursday last week, gave WRG a further 21 days to complete work already under way to remedy the smell problem.
The EA's Darren Starkey said: "We consider this to be the best option to ensure that this problem is solved once and for all. WRG have taken the first steps, and we did not want to hinder the action they are taking.
"WRG has agreed not to accept any more green waste for composting on to the site until agreement is reached about a medium-term solution. This should mean that the chance of smells being released from the site will be minimised for the time being.
"If WRG has not completed the work agreed within the next 21 days, we will seriously consider more stringent enforcement action against the site."
EA said WRG had started to remove waste that is left on the composting pad and had also agreed to carry out shredding of waste at an alternative location, to reduce any potentials smells coming from the site.
The agency has also begun discussions with Wakefield Council, whose waste the site processes, to find a sustainable and long-term solution to the composting problem.
Potential solutions could include moving the composting operation to an alternative location on the site, and/or enclosing it in a building, specially made to control smells.
No one was available for comment from Waste Recycling Group.
alan.y@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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