Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many odour complaints have been received by the Environment Agency about Walley's Quarry Landfill in Newcastle-under-Lyme, each day since 27 February 2021.

Walleys Quarry Landfill is a high priority for the Environment Agency (EA). The EA has increased the resource focused on regulation of the site and on partnership working to address local concerns as quickly as possible. The EA continues to receive large volumes of complaints from the community surrounding the site and takes each one very seriously.

Earlier this month, the EA issued Red Industries with an enforcement notice legally requiring specific actions to be completed by 30 April, including the capping of certain parts of the site. This should reduce odours to a level where they do not cause an offence (against permit definition).

The EA is also working alongside its partners to ensure air quality monitoring covers their health remits. The EA has agreed two further locations, in addition to those that went live in early March, to site air quality monitoring equipment. The additional units will be in place as soon as possible. The EA is sharing this data with partners, including Public Health England, on a regular basis and has supported a Staffordshire County Council led multi-agency statement on health advice.

The EA is receiving complaint reports from a number of different avenues including via email and phone. These are being updated to the system at regular intervals so these figures may be subject to change.