Landfill site operator seeking permission to deal with more waste

Photo: Google, DigitalGlobe

Pilsworth South Landfill

The company responsible for the Pilsworth stink earlier this year now wants permission to deal with more waste.

Valencia Waste Management operates the Pilsworth South Landfill site on the border of Bury and Rochdale. At the start of 2024, the Pilsworth Road site gained notoriety by producing a stench that local politicians described as ‘like being hit in the face’.

Locals said they’d been left feeling sick by the nasty stench emanating from the site, comparing it to the odour of ‘rotten meat’. 

Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott joined Bury Council boss Eamonn O’Brien and GM mayor Andy Burnham in calling for the operator to be stripped of its licence. During a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on 22 March, Mr Burnham said the situation was ‘not acceptable in the slightest’. 

The GM mayor claimed he met with officials from the EA and UK Health Security Agency to resolve the problem site. Although the stink has now gone, the Environment Agency (EA) is still monitoring the site.

The EA installed new monitoring facilities to track air quality around the site. However, in May, the EA said there were no plans to remove Valencia’s licence.

The EA are the organisation that Valencia is now wanting permission from in order to process more recyclable materials at their new recycling centre. The company was granted permission for their new recycling centre, just to the east of the M66 motorway, in December last year.

A spokesperson for Valencia confirmed: “We have applied to the Environment Agency to secure an environment permit that will allow us to process material already coming to the landfill site at our new Material Recycling Facility. 

“This is a significant investment in recycling infrastructure and will see any recyclable material removed and sent for reprocessing before residual waste is landfilled at the existing site.”

Valencia wanted to clarify that this application would not see the expansion of the site, but just the amount of material they could process and recycle.

 George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter