Erin Landfill: Residents ‘tired of blame game’ as landfill odour returns to North Derbyshire villages

Duckmanton and Poolsbrook residents have reported that ‘rotting eggy smell’ from Erin landfill has returned over the last few days.

This comes after the Environment Agency received over 300 complaints amid a ‘dramatic increase’ in reports of ‘horrible’ smell affecting residents across both villages in July.

The site operator Valencia issued an apology following the complaints and explained that increased odour was caused by stockpiled waste being exposed before being tipped into a new landfill cell.

The operator said they have altered their operations to cover the exposed waste and reduce odours.

But the smell has reportedly gotten worse again over the last few days - with several residents saying they submitted reports on August 22-23.

James Tomlinson, of Duckmanton said: “Once again, the stench has returned to affect the communities of Poolsbrook and Duckmanton.

“The heatwave has passed and we now have had some rain lifting the stench from the ground and with it the particulate matter to drift over residents’ homes.

"This is also the perfect time for flies to breed in the warm damp decaying matter, i am sure that this will be the next health issue residents will have to endure.”

Carlie Sivitter, who has lived in Poolsbrook for five years, added: “The smell returned a little over a week ago, and has been a rotting eggy smell but intermittent, and the flies have increased again as well.

"You can’t open the windows until 9pm and it doesn’t even guarantee the smell is going to be gone.

"We report but nothing is being done. Everyone has had enough. It’s an uphill battle.

"The landfill operators can’t even accept that flies come from the landfill.

"They say they sprayed against them but it’s too late because they have already spread from the landfill to villages.

"How is it just coincidence that we get infestations and other places like Inkersall don’t?

“A lot of people are disgruntled after the last smell we reported was blamed on muck spreading-that smell was not muck, there is a huge difference between rotting matter and gases, and muck spreading, and there’s no way muck smells would have made it all the way to Poolsbrook.

"We are tired of this blame game.

"We just wish they would had some sympathy and helped us.”

Despite several residents from across Duckmanton and Poolsbrook saying that they submitted reports of smell over the weekend, Valencia said the company was not aware of any complaints.

A spokesperson for Valencia said: “We are sorry that residents have detected an odour around our Erin site, we have not received any complaints this weekend and are operating small volumes of waste into the newly engineered landfill cell and ensuring full daily cover is completed.

"There are no landfill gas infrastructure works underway and the aged waste has been fully capped.

"We will continue to engage with the Environment Agency and operate in accordance with the site’s environmental permit.”

The Environment Agency has been approached for a comment.