FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Walleys Quarry landfill site holds a valid planning permission from Staffordshire County Council, along with an environmental permit – issued by the Environment Agency. The Site is managed to ensure there is no negative impact to human health or the environment. Should, for any reason, operations at the site be non-compliant with the stringent limits set out in the planning permission or permit, operations may be halted until the issues are resolved.

Yes the Environmental Permit for the Walleys Quarry landfill site is available on the Environment Agency’s website – a link is available here.

The Environment Agency visit the site regularly to inspect site operations in accordance with pre-submitted management plans and the Environmental Permit. Following visits assessment reports are submitted to record their activity.

Walleys Quarry is a non-hazardous landfill, a list of permitted wastes is included with the Environmental Permit. Incoming waste is subject to regular inspections and audits. Should any non-conforming waste be identified, it will be isolated and removed in accordance with protocols onsite.

Whilst recycling and energy recovery continues to increase, there are still non-recyclable waste streams that are not suitable for energy recovery. Landfills will continue to play a key part in the UK waste management sector over the coming decades.

This is not accurate. There have been accusations of non-permitted wastes being delivered to the Walleys Quarry landfill site. Following thorough investigations, and liaison with the Environment Agency this has been found to be not true. The Walleys Quarry landfill management team have stringent protocols in place to ensure that incoming waste is permitted within the Environmental Permit.

Deliveries of waste are required to declare the composition of the waste, coded with internationally recognised waste classification codes. Walleys Quarry inspects customers and incoming loads regularly to ensure that waste being delivered to the site is compliant.

The operator of the Landfill site is required to restore the site in accordance with the planning permission. In the case of Walleys Quarry – this is Walleys Quarry Limited.

The Landfill site holds a valid planning permission – this stipulates the height and landform that is permitted. The site management will continue to receive waste into the site – to meet these agreed landform characteristics.

Walleys Quarry Ltd was not involved in the decisions to build homes around the landfill site. The Walleys Quarry site has been used for industrial activity for many decades. The UK’s Health Protection Agency found that “living close to a well-managed landfill site does not pose a significant risk to human health.”

Weather conditions can have an impact upon odours at landfill sites, with low wind levels and colder conditions causing gasses to remain around the site. Walleys Quarry conducts regular inspections, along with its employees carrying personal gas detectors to identify if gas levels are above safe legal limits.

The landfill gas infrastructure captures gas produced within the engineered landfill cells and transported to the landfill gas compound to be combusted.

As gas is generated from the decomposition of organic fractions of the landfilled waste, a methane rich gas is generated. This is captured and sent via pipeline to the landfill gas compound at the perimeter of the site. The gas is combusted to generate electricity, which is then exported to the local grid. Once the Landfill site closes to waste deliveries, the gas generated will continue to be managed for the coming decades.

Management recognise the impact that persistent odours can have for local residents. The Site team continually inspect the waste deliveries and activities on the landfill to ensure that odour risks are managed. Additional soil cover, and landfill gas infrastructure has been installed in recent years to further enhance the capture of gas from the site.

Walleys Quarry landfill site holds a unit emergency plan that would be activated in the event of a fire. This would see staff evacuated away from the impacted area and waste deliveries halted. The fire brigade would work with the site operator to attempt to cover the burning waste with soil, and using water where appropriate. Once extinguished the site would be monitored with a waking watch to ensure that the fire had been fully extinguished.

The Walleys Quarry community liaison group would be the primary communications route for updates from the landfill site. The fire brigade and local authority would assume control of public communications, for example instructing residents to keep their windows closed.

Yes. Walleys Quarry landfill site hosts a regularly community liaison group meeting that issues updates for community representatives. Videos of recent meetings can be viewed here: Latest Walleys Quarry Liaison Committee video – Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council (newcastle-staffs.gov.uk)

The Community Liaison Group has a set membership, comprised of elected members, officers of the local authority, the Environment Agency. At this time, additional members are not being welcomed.