Dozens of campaigners gathered outside County Hall in Haverfordwest this morning (Wednesday, April 10) to protest about a foul odour permeating their homes and lives which should have stopped last week.
Residents say that their lives have been affected since late last year by smells from Withyhedge Landfill Site described as like "a stink bomb on steroids".
People living up to four miles away say that they have been unable to open their windows or let their children play outside since October. The smell has even been reported as far away as St Davids.
See our live coverage of the demonstration here.
The site is operated by Withyhedge Landfill Resources Management Ltd (RML) who have permission from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to deposit 250,000 tonnes of waste a year.
Locals are also concerned that much of the waste is not from Pembrokeshire but is being driven into the county in lorries on a daily basis.
NRW issued RML with an enforcement notice back in February giving the company until April 5 to sort out the odours from the site.
In a previous statement the company said that it was fully committed to delivering the agreed work to stop the odours before the April 5 deadline.
NRW said: “By close of play on April 5, the operator is required to have completed preparatory work, capping, and gas infrastructure installation on a previously uncapped waste mass. The work set out in the Notice has the purpose of containing and collecting landfill gas being produced in this area."
NRW visited the site on Monday, April 8, to see if compliance had been reached and to inspect the area.
The issue was then to be discussed in a meeting with NRW, Pembrokeshire County Council and Public Health Wales today.
Protestors outside County Hall this morning said that the stink had not stopped and that they had been given no information as to why or what was going on. They also said that they had been given no feedback with regards to the gas monitoring that had taken place in the surrounding area.
“PCC and NRW have failed the residents of Pembrokeshire,” said Stop the Stink’s Colin Barnett.
“We are really concerned about our health, some of us have been suffering from breathlessness, nausea and sore eyes. Nothing has been done about it.
“We were promised an engineering plan and for this to be resolved by April 5th. We are here five days later, it has not been resolved.”
Mr Barnett said that residents were still waiting for a statement to tell them why the situation had not been resolved but so far had heard nothing other than the smell and gas may be coming from another cell.
“It beggars belief,” he said.
He added that the gas monitoring currently in place would not monitor the spikes in gas emission and that none of their findings had been shared with residents.
“We want to know what’s happening to our health. Public health has to step in. Environmental health needs to take over this shambles and teach them how to do it.
“We have a statutory right to enjoy our homes. Apparently that has been waived by the NRW permit so we have had our statutory rights removed and NRW are doing nothing about it.
Mr Barnett added that residents wanted RML to stop accepting waste until the problem was successfully addressed.
“We want them to get the professionals in if they can’t fix it themselves.
“It’s coming in truck after truck after truck on top of the problem that is existing and they haven’t fixed it yet.”
NRW has said that it will issue a statement after today’s multi-agency meeting.
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