\n The Environment Agency opened consultation on an application by Seletia (F) Limited to vary the environmental permit for Flusco Landfill, at Newbiggin, on August 21.\n<\/p>\n
\n The regulator describes the application as involving a ‘substantial change’ to the permit.\n<\/p>\n
\n Documents submitted by Seletia show it wants to increase the permitted annual input of non-hazardous waste from 66,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is also seeking to raise annual limits for inert waste from 25,000 to 200,000 tonnes and waste used for restoration from 25,000 to 200,000 tonnes.\n<\/p>\n
\n The overall permitted capacity of the landfill would remain unchanged, with the application instead seeking to dramatically increase the rate at which waste can be deposited.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a market assessment supporting the application, Seletia says it has ‘a number of waste supply contracts’ confirming material is available to support increased throughput.\n<\/p>\n
\n It says Flusco is well placed to accept residual waste from Cumbria and surrounding areas, including northern Lancashire, County Durham and ‘potentially from southern Scotland’.\n<\/p>\n
\n The company says the ‘primary strategic driver’ for increasing annual throughput is to accelerate completion of the landfill and its restoration.\n<\/p>\n
\n Its report says: “By enabling earlier final capping, infrastructure completion, and restoration, the Operator aims to reduce the duration of emissions and nuisance (e.g. odour, dust, noise).”\n<\/p>\n
\n It also says faster completion could ‘minimise long-term disruption from HGV movements and site activity’.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seletia acknowledges, however, that increasing throughput ‘will result in more frequent waste deliveries and operational activity’.\n<\/p>\n
\n It argues this would be balanced by accelerated completion of landfill cells, earlier final capping and earlier installation of gas management infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n
\n The company says the increase is also needed ‘to accommodate the volumes committed under existing contractual arrangements, which exceed the current annual tonnage limits’.\n<\/p>\n
\n The application has reached public consultation following a turbulent period at Flusco.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Environment Agency issued an enforcement notice in October 2025 following concerns over compliance with the site’s environmental permit.\n<\/p>\n
\n A suspension notice followed in December, preventing new waste from being accepted until specified measures were completed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seletia appealed against both notices, with the case heard at Rheged in May, but an inspector upheld the Environment Agency’s action in June.\n<\/p>\n
\n The permit variation itself predates the conclusion of that enforcement battle, with the proposed increases contained in documents prepared earlier this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seletia’s January assessment says the company was ‘engaging with the Environment Agency to address recent compliance matters through a structured programme of corrective actions’.\n<\/p>\n
\n It adds: “The proposed increase in annual tonnage is part of a broader commitment to accelerate the engineered restoration of the site, ensuring earlier cessation of landfill operations and minimising long-term environmental and amenity impacts.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Environment Agency is now inviting representations on the application before deciding whether to grant the variation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Environment Agency opened consultation on an application by Seletia (F) Limited to vary the environmental permit for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-750362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750362","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=750362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}