THE operator of a landfill site blamed for the ‘stench’ blighting a village in Wrexham has been hit with an enforcement notice for breaching its environmental permit.

Member of the Senedd Ken Skates and local councillor David A Bithell met senior Natural Resources Wales (NRW) representatives in December to discuss residents’ complaints about foul smells from the Hafod site in Johnstown.

The "rotten egg" smell has been ongoing since October, with the issue still not fixed.

Earlier this month, residents called for the site to be shut down over the smell.

Enovert was subsequently issued with an enforcement notice for contraventions of its operating permit which included odour and landfill gas management requirements.

The notice, issued to the company on December 21, also ruled that Enovert had failed to suitably manage levels of leachate–contaminated liquids.

The local politicians say they’ll be ‘seeking further sanctions’ if things don’t improve.

Cllr Bithell said: “The site operator was given timescales on eight actions which require attention, some by the end of January. These included temporary capping of parts of the site, gas well improvements and providing NRW key documentation on how these can address local concerns.

“The site stench has become unacceptable.”

Mr Skates and Cllr Bithell held a follow-up meeting with NRW last week.

Cllr Bithell added: “We were also informed of inadequate arrangements of the wheel wash facility and mud on the road. Whilst NRW is the site regulator, I have also raised with the council if odours constitute a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

“If the site operator fails to comply with the notice, we will be seeking further sanctions.”

Mr Skates, MS for Clwyd South, said: “We’re grateful to NRW for listening and for taking swift action after our meeting last month. I hope this provides some reassurances to local people.

“We said during our last meeting that this can’t be allowed to continue and we made it clear we needed to see some action, so I’m pleased we are now seeing something being done. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

Both are encouraging residents to keep reporting issues to NRW by contacting the 24/7 Incident Communication Centre on 03000 65 3000.

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Mark Silvester, CEO of Enovert, said: “Enovert has been proactive in implementing additional control measures at the Hafod site in response to a recent increase in odour complaints.

"We have consistently worked alongside NRW to rapidly address the concerns they have raised, and in December 2023, we agreed an action plan with them which we continue to follow.

"We recently completed installation of temporary capping despite the difficult weather conditions and we have provided an update on site works to the members of the liaison committee including Cllr Bithell."