HILLS Waste Solutions, which operates the Northacre Resource Recovery Centre in Westbury, will not be prosecuted for breaching their environmental permit in 2021, despite the Environment Agency (EA) receiving 500 complaints in a seven-month period of a “rancid” smell originating from the site that had plagued residents.
Hills was initially investigated by the EA following hundreds of complaints by Westbury residents that the smell coming from their mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant near The Ham was “rancid” and caused distress for many residents. The company was eventually issued with a warning letter in December 2023 to put on record that a breach of permit had occurred.
The origin of the smell was caused by a faulty biofilter that was eventually replaced by Hills, but the EA decided not to prosecute the company for breaching their odour conditions as they said it was “not in the public interest”.
The EA was asked by White Horse News why it was not in the public interest to prosecute Hills for their breach of permit and under what circumstances they would prosecute Hills, given they had received so many complaints about the smell.
The EA says that the breach of permit was not considered in the public interest in legal terms, as Hills had no intent, as the company did “everything they could to mitigate the effects of exchanging the biofilter”, the issue was not forseeable (as the company had undertaken the same works in 2018 when no reports of odour were received from the public), and the incident was seen as a side effect of a “necessary and well-planned operation to exchange an industrial biofilter in a modern industrial waste plant.”
They added that Hills had demonstrated that all their decision-making was driven by the corporate desire for permit compliance and that the company took a “considerable” financial hit by reducing the amount of waste input to the site in order to hasten the ‘bedding-in’ process of the biofilter.
EA letter
In a letter sent to Hills by the EA in December last year, obtained by White Horse News, the EA says, “We were concerned as to your company’s practices as regards to management of odour control at the Northacre Resource Recovery Centre. On this occasion, the EA feels that it is not in the public interest to prosecute you for breaching the odour condition of your environmental permit.”
In the letter, the EA goes on to say that they want to put on record their concerns about their waste management processes, “in particular, the manner in which the bio-filter element of the odour management system is replaced.”
A spokesperson for the EA said, “Between July and December 2021, the Environment Agency received over 500 reports of odour in the Westbury area. The Agency deployed significant resources to substantiate and identify the source of these reports and took action. On a number of occasions, our staff identified odour in residential areas that officers believed to be a reasonable cause for annoyance.
“We take all reports to us of odour or pollution very seriously and will take appropriate action where necessary. Our action line 0800 807060 is available 24 hours a day if you wish to report odour or pollution incidents.”
According to the EA, Wiltshire Council also considered closing down the site while the biofilter was replaced. They added, “This course of action was decided against because of the potential knock-on impacts, meaning waste may not be collected on time and start to build up in the streets. Bio-filters rely on a living system to treat the odorous material, so it was also felt that by stopping the waste entirely, the bio-filter would never actually colonise and work.”
