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Smell complaints from Walleys Quarry have fallen to their lowest level in 17 months – as Newcastle Borough Council is owed £132,097. Walleys Quarry Ltd collapsed into voluntary liquidation three months after the Silverdale landfill site was issued with an Environment Agency closure notice and owed non-prefential creditors £3.5 million.
This includes £102,000 in unpaid legal fees to Newcastle Borough Council – and a further £30,000 in unpaid business rates.
Council chief executive Gordon Mole said: “We are in correspondence with the liquidator to seek recovery of monies owed to the council, to the extent of legal fees and outstanding business rate sums. We will continue to pursue that within our powers.”
The closure notice barred Walleys Quarry from accepting new waste and instructed the company to cap the site and install gas infrastructure. It comes as one councillor did not smell anything when he drove past the site this week.
Mr Mole added: “Odour complaints have significantly decreased in February – 79 complaints were received across the month compared to 1,620 in January. We have not seen complaints at that level since September 2023, so it is definitely moving in the right direction. We had two odour events in February, with over 10 complaints received in a day – compared to 24 odour events reported in January. There are currently 32 complaints to date this month, and we encourage people to continue to report issues.”
Council leader Simon Tagg added: “Everyone can see from the complaints data that the level of odours has dropped. Hopefully the Environment Agency can do the work to ensure the site is kept under control. This council and the county council are there to support the Environment Agency. The priority is to ensure this site doesn’t become a problem again, the capping works, and we end up with full restoration of the site.”
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