On Thursday, July 14 the EA served an enforcement notice on Lincolnshire-based Lincwaste Ltd, the operators of Colsterworth Landfill Site near Grantham.

The action came after the agency received a barrage of complaints from residents living near the site concerned about the stench.

The notice prevents further landfilling of feather waste from the poultry processing industry until measures are put in place to control the bad odours it creates.

The site operators had already put some control measures in place, but a condition of their permit is that the offensive odours do not travel outside the boundaries of the site.

John Giles, Environment Agency team leader said, “We have received a lot of complaints about the smells from this site and have taken action so that the operator sorts the problem out and stops causing a nuisance to local people.

“Every day poultry processes generate a large amount of feather waste that has to be dealt with, but operators can do it without causing a nuisance, and we’re here to make sure they don’t cause one.”

On Friday, July 15 operations at a nearby recycling site were also put on hold because of unpleasant smells.

The EA handed out a suspension notice to Mid UK Recycling in Caythorpe, also near Grantham.

Once again, a concerted campaign by residents complaining to the EA about the smells led to action.

The notice prevents the further deposit and storage of green waste at the site.

Mid UK hold an EA waste management licence to compost green waste.

During a site inspection by the agency, officers found that some aspects of the composting operation did not comply with its licence, so an enforcement notice was issued on 30 June 2005.

Among the conditions of the notice was a requirement that the operators control the odours produced by the rotting waste as part of the composting process.

But even after this notice was issued, further complaints were received from the public and investigated by the agency.

The investigation showed that operations on the site were still in breach of the notice, even though the operator has taken some action to sort out the problem.

The suspension notice means that Mid UK will not be able to accept or store any further green waste until improvements have been carried out so that the composting can be done without causing problems with bad smells for local people.

Mr Giles said: “The Enforcement Notice gave the operator adequate time to solve the problem, but unfortunately they haven’t done so.

“Issuing the Suspension Notice will mean that the problems are sorted out before Mid UK can start accepting green waste again, helping to ensure that local people don’t have to put up with more bad smells.”

By Sam Bond

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