Walleys Quarry: 'Stop the Stink' protesters block lorries from landfill site

Credit: PA Images

'Stop the Stink' protesters have blocked waste lorries getting onto a landfill site at the centre of a long-running row over noxious gas fumes which a local GP has likened to a kind of "torture" for residents.

Around 50 demonstrators arrived at the gates of Walleys Quarry landfill site in Silverdale, Staffordshire, this morning (25th August) some settling into camping chairs and tying "Stop the Stink" banners to fences.

By midday the group, the vast majority of which are locals living within a mile of the site, had succeeded in preventing three lorries getting on-site, while police tried to manage the situation.

Protesters outside Walleys Quarry. Credit: PA Images

A hardcore of protesters blocked the landfill's main entrance in Cemetery Road, some carrying placards reading "Whara pen 'n' ink" and images of superheroes with the caption "toxic waste does not give you superpowers".

It is the latest move in a long-running campaign by the Stop the Stink campaign group against the site, which protesters have claimed is the cause of a pungent eggy stink, emanating day and night.

People living there have long campaigned for changes at the site, and say the regulation of the landfill site is botched and the smell from it is ruining their lives.

Mr Wint, 31, said the campaign would continue "until the problem is solved and the children can go to school and breathe fresh, clean air, and people stop saying it is affecting their mental health".

To people saying it was "just a smell", he said: "It really isn't just a smell, it fills your house, sticks to everything - it's ruining people's lives."

The protest comes after the issue landed in the High Court in London last week.

Campaigners are now waiting for a judge to rule on a legal fight over the landfill site, said to be the source of the smell.

Mr Justice Fordham finished hearing evidence on Friday and is expected to deliver a ruling in the near future.

Walleys Quarry, which is an "interested party" in the legal action, says, on its website that it offers a "safe disposal method" for waste that cannot be otherwise reused or recycled.

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