Demand for 'noxious' landfill site to be shut over smell complaints

REGULATORS ACCUSED OF 'INSTITUTIONAL EVASION'

- By CHRIS HAINES ICNN Senedd Reporter

CAMPAIGNERS have accused public bodies of failing to safeguard the public from “noxious” odours from a landfill site, warning of a “glaring regulatory gap”.

Steve Gittins organised a petition signed by more than 1,100 people in protest at the “overpowering” smell from the Enovert landfill site at the old Hafod quarry in Johnstown, Wrexham.

In written evidence to a resulting Senedd inquiry, Mr Gittins accused Wrexham council and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) of failing to close a void in regulations.

"This is not just regulatory inertia but governance failure,” he said on behalf of campaigners who have been fighting for change for the best part of two decades.

He told the Senedd's petitions committee that the council and NRW rely on “vague technicalities” to preserve a “harmful” status quo.

Mr Gittins wrote: “Does this not create the impression that the operator is being protected rather than the public, by running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds?”

He warned of “complaint fatigue” and criticised community engagement, with members of a liaison committee describing it as a “waste of time”.

“After 19 years of protests, they still prevaricate and kick the can down the road,” Mr Gittins said. “This is not engagement - it is institutional evasion.”