You will be keen to know that on Wednesday 25 January 2023, SEPA partially suspended Patersons of Greenoakhill Limited's Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) Permit. This means the operator cannot accept any more non-hazardous waste for landfill on to the site until they have assessed, identified and implemented all necessary measures to ensure that its waste operations are carried out without offensive odours being detectable beyond its site boundary. The rest of the operations at the site are unaffected. Odour from the landfill site has had an impact on the local community for many years and SEPA has used a range of enforcement powers to try and tackle this, including, as I informed you in December, a Variable Monetary Penalty (VMP) of £6,200 for offensive odour issues at the site between 8 and 15 June 2021. The company was also required to pay £1,156.35 of SEPA’s costs. Since 24 December 2022, SEPA has received around 800 complaints in relation to this site. Chris Dailly, Head of Environmental Performance at SEPA, said: “We have been working with the operator to address issues and secure compliance. We have also heard directly the impact on the local community and have now taken this enforcement measure. “Local residents are unlikely to notice an immediate reduction in odour impact. This is because a range of actions are likely to be required to be taken by the operator to ensure that ongoing odour management is effective. We will continue to engage with the operator.” Throughout December 2022 and January 2023, SEPA officers carried out reactive and proactive odour assessments to determine the scale of the impact on the community and gather evidence. The operator has been carrying out a number of actions relating to landfill gas infrastructure and has been meeting SEPA regularly. SEPA remains committed to finding a resolution and officers will continue to carry out assessments in the affected areas. Anyone who continues to experience offensive odour, which is impacting them and their amenity, should notify SEPA via our pollution hotline 0800 80 70 60 or online at www.sepa.org.uk/report.
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