{"id":523163,"date":"2026-04-10T10:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523163\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:42:09","slug":"an-abomination-the-lancashire-town-kicking-up-at-stink-from-reopened-landfill-lancashire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/523163\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An abomination\u2019: the Lancashire town kicking up at stink from reopened landfill | Lancashire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the week that many families went to the coast for the fresh sea air or the tang of fish and chips, visitors to one Lancashire<\/a> resort inhaled a rather more unpleasant aroma.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to Fleetwood,\u201d read the local newspaper headline. \u201cThe town that smells of bin juice.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than two years, the former fishing port has been choked by a putrid pong from a reopened landfill site that has prompted more than 20,000 complaints to the Environment Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite promises to tackle the smell, which residents have compared with rotten eggs and animal excrement, many say it is worse than ever. Nearly 6,000 complaints have been logged by the EA in the last six weeks alone.<\/p>\n

Dave McPartlin, the headteacher of nearby Flakefleet primary school, said it was now so bad children were refusing to play outside. \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting and it\u2019s particularly bad when the weather tends to be nice, so just as people want to get fresh air you get this really offensive, intrusive smell that just lingers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The foul stench is hydrogen sulphide, a toxic gas that was released when Transwaste, a recycling firm, reopened the decades-old Jameson Road landfill in late 2023 after it had been closed for five years.<\/p>\n

Donna Davidson and Dr Barbara Kneale have launched a campaign to get the site closed permanently. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Residents said the smell has caused retching, vomiting, nose bleeds, headaches, itchy eyes and a worsening of breathing conditions. Even at night, the smell lingers because the temperature drop means the gas stays closer to the ground than it does during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are getting gassed in their beds \u2013 that\u2019s how they\u2019re describing it,\u201d said Donna Davidson, a retired teacher who lives in Thornton-Cleveleys, a village nearly 3 miles from the landfill, and has experienced the wind blowing the smell into her home and beyond to the edge of Blackpool.<\/p>\n

Holidaymakers at the caravan sites next to the landfill have complained online about the \u201cabsolutely vile\u201d smell making them sick. One family who had booked an autism-friendly caravan described their \u201chell\u201d after their child with extreme sensory needs was \u201cso nauseous at the smell they couldn\u2019t even leave their room\u201d.<\/p>\n

Allison Rowe, 65, who moved to Fleetwood during the Covid pandemic, remembers the first time the stench clung to her throat. \u201cIt was February 2024,\u201d she said. \u201cI came out one morning and all of a sudden it was: \u2018What\u2019s that bloody stink?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I come back from somewhere in the car and I\u2019ll vomit my guts out, straight out of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Map of Fleetwood and Jameson Road landfill<\/a><\/p>\n

Rowe said she was diagnosed with two lung conditions six months ago \u2013 asthma and slight chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) \u2013 and believed they were linked to the landfill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an abomination,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody knows what the long-term consequences will be for the people who are now pregnant or have other health issues. The authorities need to protect the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Imperial College London study<\/a> in 2020 found a small increase in congenital abnormalities in those living close to municipal waste sites, but there has been little detailed research<\/a> on the issue.<\/p>\n

Fleetwood has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England, with higher levels of asthma and nearly double<\/a> the national average rate of COPD, conditions the UK Health Security Agency says<\/a> are made worse by breathing in noxious air.<\/p>\n

Homes in Harbour Village, Fleetwood. The foul smell from the landfill has been reported several miles away. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In the almost two years to January, the EA recorded 74 compliance breaches at the Transwaste site, a third of which were classed as \u201csignificant\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Hull-based firm, run by brothers Paul and Mark Hornshaw, began installing a permanent barrier on the landfill this month to address the stench, claiming it applied to the EA to carry out the work in December but was only given the go-ahead last week.<\/p>\n

Many residents said they felt let down by the relevant public agencies, including the EA, two local authorities and the NHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are treating us with contempt,\u201d said Dr Barbara Kneale, a trained GP and consultant in occupational medicine who lives a mile from the landfill.<\/p>\n

Together with Davidson, she is gathering evidence to try to get the site closed permanently. This includes detailed hydrogen sulphide readings from people\u2019s homes and keeping track of the trucks piling rubbish into Fleetwood, which have been traced to Dover, Dunfermline, Hull and beyond.<\/p>\n

Last month, a group of more than 100 local people staged a slow march to the landfill in protest, some aided by walking frames, others wearing face masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s taking it seriously. They just think we should put up with it,\u201d said Kneale, 61. \u201cI think they had a real shock that people of Fleetwood have stood up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident holds a campaign leaflet. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Lorraine Beavers, the town\u2019s MP, used parliamentary privilege last month to describe Transwaste as \u201ccrooks\u201d who were being allowed to \u201cevade accountability for their crimes\u201d. She told the Guardian: \u201cThe smell is worse than ever and is destroying lives and livelihoods [and] I will not rest until the site is shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transwaste said it strongly rejected Beavers\u2019 \u201centirely unfounded\u201d allegations and that it complied with all laws and committed itself to the highest standards. It said many of the odour issues were a result of bringing the site back into operation.<\/p>\n

Wyre borough council, the site\u2019s landlord, said it could only take legal action if residents recorded detailed diaries and allowed council officers to witness the smell inside their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been 20,000 complaints to the Environment Agency \u2013 is that not enough?\u201d said McPartlin, adding that he felt Fleetwood had been forgotten. \u201cIf this was some wealthy Surrey commuter belt this would never be allowed to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

An EA spokesperson said: \u201cThe community should not have to tolerate odours that affect their environment. We have pushed the operator to cover areas of the site where waste has recently been deposited to reduce odour and are pressing them to install permanent capping as soon as possible to prevent future emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnvironment Agency officers are on the ground actively monitoring the situation, and if we don\u2019t see improvements, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the week that many families went to the coast for the fresh sea air or the tang…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-523163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}