Walley’s Quarry Landfill Site, Cemetery Road, Silverdale, Newcastle under Lyme ST56DH

Closes 3 Feb 2021

Opened 3 Feb 2020

Contact

Engagement_WestMids@environment-agency.gov.uk

Overview

Walley’s Quarry Landfill Site, Cemetery Road, Silverdale, Newcastle under Lyme ST56DH

Coronavirus: The Environment Agency response

We are working hard with Government and other emergency responders on protecting the public and the environment from the effects of Coronavirus. The Environment Agency remains fully operational, with the majority of our staff working from home. In accordance with the Government’s and our own internal guidance, we continue to carry out regulatory visits to sites. Since restrictions have lifted we have completed site visits to Walley’s Quarry landfill in June and July.

Site Details

The Environment Agency regulates two environmental permits held by Red Industries to operate a waste facility at Walleys Quarry.  One permit for the landfill site and one permit for the soil treatment facility. 

Walleys Quarry Landfill site – We issued an Environmental Permit for Walleys Quarry’s Landfill site on 9 June 2005 to Lafarge Aggregates Limited.  The permit was transferred to Red Industries RM Limited on  3 November 2016.

The permit allows the operation of a Non Hazardous waste landfill with a separate cell for Stable Non-Reactive Hazardous Waste (SNRHW) (gypsum and asbestos).  The operator has never used a separate cell and therefore SNRHW is not accepted.

The total quantity of waste allowed to be accepted at the facility is 250,000 tonnes per year. Non Hazardous waste includes municipal and industrial wastes.

The permit also allows the operation of

  • a leachate treatment plant for management of leachate produced by the landfill
  • landfill gas engine and flare for treatment and utilisation of landfill gas created by the landfill

Monitoring is required for landfill gas, leachate, surface water and groundwater at a number of points at the facility, at different frequencies (weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual)

Walleys Quarry Soil Treatment facility – we issued an Environment Permit for Walleys Quarry soil treatment facility on 11 April 2012 for the treatment of waste to produce soil, soil substitutes and aggregates. The operator does not currently undertake this operation

Click here to view the permits - Walleys Quarry transfer notice and Walleys Quarry consoldiated permit

Public consultation – 19 August 2020 until 16 September 2020

In December 2018 we received an environmental permit variation application for Walleys Quarry Landfill Site, Cemetery Road, Silverdale, Newcastle under Lyme ST56DH, on behalf of Red Industries RM Ltd. The variation to the existing environmental permit, requested and increase in the annual waste inputs from 250,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes.

We ran our first public consultation on the variation application from 24 May 2019 to 20 August 2019. We have now reached our draft ‘minded to’ decision to issue the variation to the environmental permit. We will now run a public consultation on our draft decision from 19 August 2020 until 16 September 2020. The draft decision document can be viewed online- see link below:

https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/st5-6dh-red-industries-limited-dd

How to comment

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak we are following Government advice to manage the risks of Coronavirus to our organisation, to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and sustain our critical operations. In line with government advice, our office is now closed and our staff are working remotely, therefore we are unable to receive responses by post.

You can submit your comments on our draft ‘minded to’ decision until 16 September 2020, as detailed below:

Once we have reviewed all comments submitted through our public consultation, we will make our final decision on whether or not to issue the environmental permit.

It is important to us that our consultation is as representative as possible and that all voices are heard.  Please feel free to pass details of the consultation onto anyone else who you feel would have an interest. 

For more information please see: Notice of Public Consultation and Public Information Pack

Latest News

 Site inspection

 We visited the site in June and July to inspect the engineering works to the sidewall liner in preparation for the next phase of waste deposition.  These engineering works involve laying an approved source of clay against the side wall of the landfill under the full time supervision of an independent third party engineer. The works have now been completed and we have received a Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) validation report which we have reviewed and accepted. Waste deposition may now commence in the areas which have under gone the engineering works. Further information on landfill engineering can be found in the FAQ’s in our online information page.

 New unloading pad

We have approved the use of a new unloading pad within the landfill. The unloading pad allows vehicles to tip waste onto a specially engineered platform. The waste can be safely held before being transported by Red’s vehicles into the current landfill cell. All waste is removed from the pad at the end of each day.  The use of the pad reduces the number of vehicles driving across the landfill site and the need to tow vehicles during wet weather. This will also ensure a quicker turnaround time for vehicles which will reduce waiting times for trucks entering the landfill.


Odour assessment

We are completing regular odour assessments within the local area and undertaking more frequent assessments at locations where we receive the most complaints of odour. As part of these visits we also assess the number of birds and whether mud / debris is leaving the facility.

What you have told us?

  • Residents have raised concerns about odour, pests and the height of the landfill. 

We have continued to contact the site regularly and ensure details of complaints (although we never release personal data so they cannot identify complainants) are provided to them.  In accordance with their Odour & Noise Management Plan the site operator must investigate and advise of the outcome of their investigations. We have recently reviewed the sites pest management procedure to consider if all appropriate measures are being used. We have recommended the operator use their own monitoring records to ensure rotation of different techniques as their effectiveness changes over time.  For example gulls become used to rockets, distress calls and times a falconer arrives on sites.

Some complaints have included comments about the height of the landfill. The final “landform” or shape of the landfill was decided as part of the sites planning permission held with the County Council.  The Environment Agency does not decide the final landfill / shape of the site.  The Environmental Permit considers how the site will be engineered to achieve the landform required by the planning permission. The operator has started to raise the height of the site above ground level to achieve the shape required, currently the site has not achieved the final levels.     

Roles and responsibilities and contact details

Environment Agency

The Environment Agency regulates the two environmental permits held by the Red Industries RM Limited (“the operator”) for Walleys Quarry landfill.  Our regulation includes reviews of monitoring data and site visits, both announced and unannounced.

Should you have concerns with regards to odour outside of the site boundaries, pests or any other pollution matters relating to the sites please call our free 24 hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60

Staffordshire County Council

The County Council is responsible for determining planning applications for the sites.  We are consulted by the Council on planning applications. If you have any planning permission questions please contact:  regulation@Staffordshire.gov.uk

For any other enquiries: 

Email: contactus@staffordshire.gov.uk

General enquiries (Contact Centre): 0300 111 8000

Textphone/Minicom users:  01785 276207

Keeping local residents updated

During this period of restriction due to Coronavirus we will only update you if there are any significant changes we need to make you aware of.

You can view our previous community updates below:

January 2020 Community Update

February 2020 Community Update

March and April 2020 Community Update

July and August 2020 Community Update

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

We have produced a generic landfill FAQ document, which you can viewed here

Incident reporting

We want to hear from you if you have an environmental incident or concern to report, including any odour concerns.

To do this, call our free 24 hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60

Reporting odour incidents

More Information

When reporting odour incidents to us, we will ask you to assess the strength of the odour on a scale of 0 to 6. To help with your assessment, an explanation of this scale is as follows:

0 – No odour

1 – Very faint odour (need to inhale into the wind to smell anything)

2 – Faint odour (you can detect an odour when you inhale normally)

3 – Distinct odour (there is clearly an odour in the air as you leave your car or enter the area)

4 – Strong odour (a bearable odour but strong, you could stay in the area for some time)

5 – Very strong odour (unpleasantly strong, you will want to leave the area quickly)

6 – Extremely strong odour (likely to cause nausea and a strong need to remove yourself from the odour immediately)

No landfill will ever be completely odour free. However, the level and type of odour from such operations should not be causing offence. The permit conditions require an Environment Agency officer to make a judgement about whether an odour is offensive and we can only take enforcement action where it is deemed offensive and the operator is not using all appropriate measures.

Thank you for visiting our information page.

 

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Audiences

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Interests

  • Business and industry
  • Waste
  • Permits
  • Environmental permitting
  • Installation