Residents of Fleetwood, Lancashire, are enduring a foul odour from the Jameson Road landfill, reopened in late 2023 by Transwaste Recycling & Aggregates Limited. The stench, described as like animal excrement, has caused nausea, headaches, and worsened respiratory conditions among locals.
Jess Brown, a local resident, launched a Facebook group that quickly gained over 4,000 members reporting health issues. The Environment Agency traced the smell to hydrogen sulphide emissions from the landfill, which sits in an erosion and flood zone on the River Wyre. Two enforcement orders were issued in 2024, and the site's licence was suspended in March 2025 until new gas extraction infrastructure was installed.
Barbara Kneale, a retired doctor living nearby, noted that Fleetwood has twice the national average of chronic respiratory diseases, and the odour exacerbates symptoms in vulnerable individuals. Meanwhile, investigations by The Guardian and Watershed found that waste dumped at the site by AGC Chemicals until 2014 contained the banned 'forever chemical' PFOA, which is potentially carcinogenic.
Water sampling near the landfill and a neighbouring former ICI landfill suggested PFAS chemicals are leaching into the River Wyre. David Megson of Manchester Metropolitan University said concentrations of PFOA were 5-10 times above environmental quality standards, indicating leakage from the sites. With rising sea levels, the situation could worsen.
The community fears the landfill will become a long-term liability, similar to Walleys Quarry in Staffordshire, where the operator's collapse left the Environment Agency managing the site. Brown worries that even after Transwaste's lease ends in 2027, taxpayers will foot the bill for ongoing management.
