Phew! Smell getting up people’s noses

STOCKPORT RESIDENTS COMPLAIN OF STENCH FROM EX-LANDFILL SITE

A DISGUSTING smell is plaguing people in Stockport - and the warm weather has made it a lot worse.

The foul odour, from a former landfill site in Cheadle Hulme, has been bugging residents for months. But on Thursday, when temperatures rocketed, it got much, much worse.

Environment Agency (EA) experts have been investigating the pong, from the Adswood Road site.

They said it is being caused by ‘waste materials’ being dropped at the site for a ‘cropping platform’ to plant willow trees, which will be harvested every three years for biofuel.

What those ‘materials’ are hasn’t been confirmed. Whatever they are, they stink.

EA bosses said the company that owns the site, Landcare Limited, has been ordered to cover a ‘small area’ with ‘inert material’ - which is not chemically reactive - to block the smell.

Residents said the sunny weather has made the smell stronger than ever.

Some said they were unable to open their windows because of the stench.

One Facebook user posted: “Anyone else noticed that there is quite a pong in the air in and around the Cheadle area this afternoon/evening?

“I live just off Birdhall Lane and have been smelling it since I got home from work about 2pm.”

Another wrote: “I was at the tip today, the smell wafted to me as I just got past Chelwood Church all the way up to Jewsons. The smell disappeared once I got into the tip!

“Held my nose on the way out and still heaved all the way down Adswood Road.”

A Stockport council spokesman said: “The Environment Agency visited the site following an increase in the number of reports of odour from this site.

“The Environment Agency is in regular contact with the council and they’ll be supporting them by monitoring the odour.

“In response to these reports, the Environment Agency inspected the site and provided advice and guidance to the company.

“Following this inspection, Landcare Ltd will be using inert material to cover a small area of the site to reduce the potential for odours.”

The company bought the former landfill site in 2013 and set about levelling it.

Some of the ‘specified waste materials’ being used in that work are understood to be responsible for the smell.