Bletchley Landfill Site

14/11/24 update

Our officers inspected the landfill and undertook an off-site odour assessment on 7 November and 13 November.

On 7 November distinct landfill gas odour was detected on Stoke Road, outside of Newton Longville. The operator had made good progress with their improvement actions, having worked over the weekend to install additional infrastructure, but odours remained strong in the area of the lagoon.

On 13 November distinct landfill gas odours were substantiated in a narrow plume in the Longships Drove area of Newton Leys. On site the operator was seen to have continued with their improvement works and have made good progress. The eastern end of the lagoon area is now largely free of odour however strong odours are still present on the western end. The operator is doing all that is reasonable, and safe, to do currently and are working to reduce the gas pressure present in this area. This will take time, and we anticipate further off-site odour could occur until this is achieved.

We will continue to inspect the landfill weekly until we are satisfied that the operator has regained complete control of the landfill gas in the affected area.

01/11/2024 update

Our officers attended the local area on 31 October to undertake off-site assessments of the malodour, and we have attended site again today (1 November) to undertake an inspection of the landfill.

Progress has been made and FCC have confirmed that they will be bringing in extra staff over the weekend to continue their work to capture the landfill gas from the lagoon area in cell 12, and to provide better containment around this area.

As a result, please be aware that malodour is likely to continue over the weekend and into next week whilst this work is completed.

We recognise the distress this incident will be causing and appreciate that this update does not provide you with an immediate solution. Please be assured that our officers are working hard to ensure this matter is resolved as quickly as possible.

Our officers will be monitoring this situation closely through a combination of inspections, off-site odour assessments, and liaison with FCC.

Your reports provide valuable data on the nature and scale of the problem, and we appreciate the effort you take in passing them to us.

We received 7 reports of malodour in September.

We have received more than 100 reports of malodour during October, with all but 2 of these received since 25 October.

Our officers attended the area on 26 October and were able to substantiate a faint to distinct odour along Buckingham road and Newton Road in Bletchley. FCC, the site operator, was informed and attended site to undertake investigations but were unable to identify a source.

In response to further reports of malodour received overnight our officers attended again on 27 October and substantiated odours off-site. The site operator was requested to attend, and we undertook an inspection during which we identified a source of malodour around a lagoon in cell 12, an area not currently in use for waste disposal. Options to address this were discussed with the operator at the time.

We attended site again on 29 October to monitor and assess progress with remedial works, which include installing additional gas collection in this area. Odours were not detected off-site but significant landfill odours were again confirmed around the cell 12 lagoon area.

Our officers are on site again today (30 October 2024) and the situation will be closely monitored to ensure that the site operator, FCC, undertake all appropriate measures to address the source of odour promptly.

Please refer to our FAQs document below if you have and questions regarding malodour, how we regulate, or concerns about the health implications of what you can smell.

We have received the following notification of works from FCC which were due to start 3 September, and which you may notice over the coming weeks:

“You may become aware that we are carrying out works along our boundary with Newton Leys. These works are to move a gas line and are necessary to improve condensate management within the line. The works will require the use of a medium sized excavator to help move the lines. Works will start at approximately 08:30 in the morning and will finish by 16:30 each day.

These works will facilitate the draining of condensate that builds up in gas lines under normal operation. Removal of condensate is essential to keep the lines free flowing especially in the winter months.”

There were 17 reports of malodour for August.

Our officers inspected the site on 31/7/2024 to review the sites readiness for winter conditions. This included looking at how they intend to phase operations, manage surface water, manage condensate, and how they will manage their operational cell. An off-site odour check was also undertaken at the start and the end of the inspection and no landfill related odours were detected.

We received 27 reports of malodour during July 2024.

The site operator continues to provide regular updates to us on the works being undertaken on site to help prevent, or minimise, the risk of malodours. During July works completed on site include installation of additional gas extraction in the operational areas of site, and placement of additional plastic capping.

We received 19 reports of malodour in May, and 27 reports in June.

Our officers undertook an inspection on 16 May to review and discuss improvements being implemented by the site operator. An off-site odour assessment was conducted prior to the inspection and no malodours were detected.

Three reports of malodour received for April. 

We continue to receive weekly updates from the site operator regarding ongoing works to control odours from the activities.

We received one report of malodour for March.

Our officers undertook an inspection on 20 March to review and discuss the odour control measures currently being employed by the site operator.

We have also started an audit of waste acceptance procedures for the site and this work will continue into April.

We received a total of 5 malodour reports during February.

An off-site assessment of odour and an inspection of the landfill were completed on 22 February. Some transient low-level odours were detected off-site and traced to an area on the landfill where FCC were undertaking some work in relation to landfill gas management.

We continue to monitor the situation closely and are receiving regular updates from the operator detailing measures taken on site.

Following a peak in reports of malodour during the first week, there was a notable improvement for the rest December.

We inspected the landfill and surrounding areas on 19 December to review the operators’ progress with their improvements ahead of the Christmas shut down. Our off-site odour assessment detected a very faint and intermittent landfill gas odour on Longships Drive; no other off-site odours were detected. Our inspection of the landfill found the site operator had continued with placement of temporary plastic capping, with approximately 98,000m2 completed by 22/12/23, and had installed additional gas extraction. No odours were detected across the areas we inspected.

The operator has continued to undertake improvement works and have reported completion of the following during the first two weeks in January:

• Continued with temporary capping work.
• Installation of gas extraction within the new tipping area.
• Installed contingency infrastructure to help maintain gas extraction in freezing conditions.

We received 36 complaints over the 16 and 17 January and our officers attended the area in the afternoon of 17 and morning of 18 January. Off-site assessments of odour were undertaken on both days, and an inspection of the landfill was completed on the morning of 18 January. No significant odours were detected off-site, or on the landfill. Our landfill inspection however has confirmed the most likely cause of the malodours detected by the community to be due to the failure of the seal around a well on cell 6. This issue was identified by the site operator on the morning of 17 January and immediately addressed, which would account for the lack of malodour during our off-site check later that day. 

We continue to monitor the situation closely and are receiving regular updates from the operator detailing measures taken on site.

Our role as an environmental regulator is to work with people and businesses. We provide advice and guidance and help them do the right thing for people and the environment. Where there’s a threat to people or the environment that can’t be resolved, we can use our enforcement powers, which can include prosecution.

Our focus at Bletchley has been on addressing the malodour issues, which we are doing through our regulatory inspections.

We are also ensuring that any information that we gather during this time is collected and processed in a manner that will allow us to use it for enforcement purposes should we decide to pursue a prosecution.

Where we identify issues at Bletchley landfill site, we will direct the operator to resolve the non-compliance before taking any legal action as this can be lengthy and expensive for the taxpayer.

The operator has taken steps to move out of the operational area where we had identified the most significant emissions to be from.

Actions they have taken to tackle to source of the odours include:

• Revised phasing plan – the operator has taken the decision to close, and temporary cap the entire operational area. Tipping is now taking place in a smaller cell more centrally located within the site and an operational cell management plan is in place for this activity.
• Placed over 77,000m2 of temporary plastic capping across the previous operational area to seal it and improve gas collection. This work is ongoing.
• Installed a new carrier main to improve gas collection from the affected areas.
• Installed additional scavenger wells to collect landfill gas.
• Submitted a construction quality assurance plan for additional permanent gas extraction wells, with 3 wells installed last week.
• Made improvements to the seals around leachate wells across the former operational area.
• Installation of rain flaps for surface water control.

• Regular assessments of odour to confirm the extent, severity, and source of the odours.  
• Regular inspections of the landfill to assess the sources and underlying causes of the odour and to monitor actions being taken by the operator to address the issue.
• Regular liaison with the site operator. This includes assessing the improvements they are implementing on site to ensure they are, and will, continue to be effective, but also looking at whether they have appropriate management systems in place for their proposed changes to operations.

Findings from all inspections are detailed within our Compliance Assessment Report Forms (CAR). We use our guidance on assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance to score permit breaches in accordance with our Compliance Classification Scheme (CCS).

The risk category and score we give a non-compliance reflects the potential impact it could have if it were not addressed promptly and adequately. The only exception is for non-compliances relating to amenity conditions - odour, dust, noise, and pests. We categorise the risk and score these according to their actual (rather than potential) impact. Further details on this can be found in our FAQs.

Copies of our Compliance Assessment Forms (CAR) forms will be available on the public register 28 days after they are issued to the operator, a period given to them to challenge the content within the report. If they choose to challenge our report this will delay the release. Once a CAR is available on the public register, we will also provide copies on this page.

Providing the operator uses appropriate measures to prevent, or where not practical, minimise off site odour annoyance, they will not breach their permit. The landfilling of waste by its very nature is an odorous activity and therefore will generate periodic odours that can be associated with changing weather conditions; however, this should not be a sustained event.

The odours experienced by residents of the Newton Leys’ area, and the odours substantiated by our officers, are not acceptable. We have identified sources of the odour on the landfill, and associated management failures, these are being identified in our CAR forms as breaches of the Environmental Permit.

The scores associated with these breaches of the permit will lead to an increased subsistence charge for the site and is based on the polluter pays principle.

We have not ruled out taking enforcement action at this time, as such we are unable to provide detailed information or specific updates on the underlying causes of these permit breaches, beyond the information contained within our CAR forms. This includes timescales for completion of any investigations.

Any enforcement action will be taken in line with the Environment Agency’s Enforcement and Sanctions Policy. The policy outlines a range of available enforcement options that can be applied. The decision to pursue enforcement will depend on factors including (but not limited to) intent, foreseeability, financial implication, attitude, and previous history.

If the intensity and duration of odour is such that it is offensive to you or is affecting your lifestyle, please call our free 24-hour incident hotline number: 0800 807060.

When you call our hotline about odour please provide as much of the information as you can:

• When you first noticed the problem.
• How long it lasted.
• When was it at its worst and is it still occurring?
• Where you noticed it.
• What were the weather conditions like.
• What it smelt like.
• Is the problem constant or intermittent?
• The intensity of the odour on a scale of 1-6.

Please use our numerical intensity of the odour categories:

0 - No odour

1 - Very faint odour

2 - Faint odour

3 - Distinct odour

4 - Strong odour

5 - Very strong odour

6 - Extremely strong odour

We log all calls even though we may not be able to send an officer out to the site.

Reports are passed to the operator to start investigations; personal data is never supplied on these reports. Depending on the circumstances we will also attend to assess the odour and identify any potential sources. Whilst we cannot look at all reports immediately, prompt reporting ensures that we are able to target our site visits appropriately and provides us the best chance of identifying any potential source and associated actions. 

Your reports provide valuable data on the nature and scale of the problem, and we appreciate the effort you take in passing them to us.