The Environment Agency have said they will not appear before county councillors

The Environment Agency have snubbed an invitation by Staffordshire County Council to attend Staffordshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee which was due to be held in Newcastle to discuss the ongoing issues with Walleys Quarry. However instead of attending the meeting to answer questions from councillors they have instead opted to possibly sending a report in their place.

Recently the EA has come under increased scrutiny over the miscalibration of monitoring stations which measures the level of hydrogen sulphide which means that all of the historic data is unusable. The EA have given themselves a November deadline to adjust the data, however, at this time it is not known the progress of the adjustment.

The Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee is taking place on Monday 20 November with the only item on the agenda being the health impacts of the Walleys Quarry Landfill Site. The chief executive of Newcastle Borough Council is writing to the EA asking them to attend, however so far they have refused.

Members of the committee along with local Newcastle councillors were set to attend the event and be given the opportunity to question the EA and raise concerns from the community. In the month of October complaints about the quarry were above 300 for the first time since June.

Newcastle Borough Council leader, Councillor Simon Tagg (Con) said: “I understand at the moment the Environment Agency have said they are not going to attend, they may send a report in but I would just ask really on behalf of local councillors and the community their enablement to be able to question the EA and also to be able to see them in a room being held to account along with the health experts as well needs to be something we see.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The Environment Agency remains committed to working with our partners, including continuing to be transparent about the hydrogen sulphide calibration issue we identified at Walleys Quarry Landfill and our efforts to adjust historic data. We have provided detailed information to help inform any public health advice issued by the appropriate authorities. 

“However, as we cannot answer questions related to public health ourselves, we do not feel it would be helpful to attend Staffordshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee on this occasion. We continue to require the landfill operator to comply with its environmental permit and implement all the measures necessary to manage emissions of landfill gas from the site.”