{"id":21587,"date":"2025-01-22T19:53:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/public-inquiry-into-stink-bomb-tip-demanded\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T19:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:53:02","slug":"public-inquiry-into-stink-bomb-tip-demanded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/public-inquiry-into-stink-bomb-tip-demanded\/","title":{"rendered":"Public inquiry into ‘stink bomb’ tip demanded"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"ColinColin Barnett<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Campaigners want a public inquiry into a tip that has been said to smell like a stink bomb<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Residents claiming foul smells have returned to a landfill site just weeks after it reopened are demanding a public inquiry and considering legal action.<\/p>\n

Withyhedge, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was closed last May to try and fix odour problems but opened again on 6 January.<\/p>\n

Colin Barnett, of campaigners Stop the Stink, said people in Crundale, Haverfordwest and Spittal, all in Pembrokeshire, were being subjected to “horrendous smells again”.<\/p>\n

In December RML, the company that runs the site, said it was satisfied historic problems had been resolved, adding: “Completion of this work will provide a high level of protection for both the site and its neighbouring communities.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Barnett said “he couldn’t believe” it when people began complaining about smells from the site.<\/p>\n

It has previously been described as smelling like a “stink bomb on steroids<\/a>“.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He backed calls from Conservative MS Paul Davies for a public inquiry, saying: “The public inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of what’s happened.” <\/p>\n

Campaigners, he said, had been left unsatisfied by responses from public bodies.<\/p>\n

“The public inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of what’s happened, because we’ve been flanneled by NRW, by public health, Pembrokeshire council,” he said. <\/p>\n

“All of these leaders need to take a back step and look at what they have not achieved. It’s disgraceful.”<\/p>\n

Legal action had, Mr Barnett said, been “delayed and delayed”.<\/p>\n

“It’s our only route now, because we’ve waited for 14 months for this problem to go away,” he said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Colin<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Colin Barnett said a public inquiry was “the only way to get to the bottom of what’s happened”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“We’re going to take a different route now and that looks like group litigation.”<\/p>\n

RML is part of Dauson Environmmental Group, owned by businessman David Neal.<\/p>\n

Mr Neal has twice been convicted for environmental crimes, in 2013 and 2017, relating to two companies. <\/p>\n

He was given a suspended prison sentence in 2013<\/a> for illegally dumping waste on a conservation site and four years later he was prosecuted again for not removing it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year Atlantic Recycling, directed by Mr Neal, pleaded guilty to an environmental offence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also emerged last year Vaughan Gething’s Labour leadership campaign accepted \u00a3200,000 from Dauson Environmmental Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NRW said it been monitoring the site since it reopened, adding: “In response to a rise in complaints in recent days, officers from NRW and Pembrokeshire County Council have been in the locality responding to odour incidents as reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Withyhedge<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Legal action, he said, was also being considered<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“No odours attributable to the landfill have been detected.”<\/p>\n

It had received 34 odour complaints since 6 January, it said, with an increase since 16 January.<\/p>\n

This, it said, coincided with the end of a period banning slurry spreading.<\/p>\n

Mr Barnett said there was a “clear difference” between the smell of slurry and tip odours.<\/p>\n

NRW said an inspection by it and the council will be carried out on 29 January.<\/p>\n

RML and Pembrokeshire council have been approached for comment while the Welsh government has declined to.<\/p>\n

But First Minister Eluned Morgan said on Tuesday: “I’ll keep a very close eye on this, and if those concerns continue then we will have to just discuss with NRW what concrete additional steps will have to be taken.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colin Barnett Campaigners want a public inquiry into a tip that has been said to smell like a stink bomb Residents claiming foul smells have returned to a landfill site just weeks after it reopened are demanding a public inquiry and considering legal action. Withyhedge, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was closed last May to try and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[3624,8142,504,723,8141,5027],"class_list":["post-21587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wales","tag-bomb","tag-demanded","tag-inquiry","tag-public","tag-stink","tag-tip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21589,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21587\/revisions\/21589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}