The Leo Group who operates the Omega Proteins plant to the West of Penrith have issued a statement following a recent meeting at the Omega Proteins site with Dr Neil Hudson MP for Penrith and the Border., Jonathan Davies of Evolve Penrith and local residents, including an active member of the Fresh Air For Penrith group.
The meeting facilitated by Evolve Penrith was initiated to provide an opportunity for community members to talk about their concerns and to find out how the company are addressing them.
The company has said as they operate a transparent business policy, they always encourage the local community and public to visit our Omega Proteins site in Penrith for a behind the scenes look, “as they did with Mr Thomson from Fresh Air For Penrith on 26 January.”
The Leo Group have said unfortunately they “feel compelled to express our regret at the highly inappropriate and offensive behaviour of Mr Thomson, which we had to witness during the visit and afterwards on Fresh Air For Penrith's Facebook page.”
“Mr Thomson left us no choice as we will no longer tolerate his aggressive communications containing constantly repeated untruths and innuendos. This will be our only public statement on the matter to set the records straight. We will cease all contact and communication with Fresh Air For Penrith and its representative from now on.”
In its statement following the meeting in January the company has said
“The visit started in our office where we greeted all the arriving attendees. However, we were shocked to see Mr Thomson completely ignore one of our senior managers with a different skin colour, despite shaking hands with all the other participants.
Although Mr Thomson stated that he had never visited a rendering plant before, he made it clear from the beginning to the end of the initial meeting and subsequent plant tour that he had no interest in engaging in conversation or understanding our explanations and learning anything new.
Our factory tour included a visit to all the new buildings and production lines as well as a new multi-fuel oxidiser and demonstrated where we have invested in the latest state-of-the-art technology not used by anyone else in our industry.
Again, he hardly participated. However, when he did say something, it was ignorant untruths, which he was not afraid to repeat over and over again, despite being corrected several times by our staff. He claimed that it was illegal to use and store meat-and-bone meal (MBM) from Category 1 material as biomass to run our new multi-fuel oxidiser at a certified Category 3 rendering plant.
As explained to him several times by two different staff members, MBM from Category 1 material is processed and stored in accordance with our issued permit. It is used worldwide as biomass fuel and is perfectly legal for use in a Category 3 plant as well. The site has been using Category 1 liquid fuel for over 20 years, like numerous other operators in the UK. However, Mr Thomson refused to accept this fact there and then and continues to spread this falsehood on his Facebook page.
At the final session back in the office, Mr Thomson, who had already put on his jacket, stood in front of two empty chairs and preferred not to sit down. It was clear that he no longer wished to participate and wanted to leave the room as soon as possible. When he finally left, he did not say goodbye to the other participants or to our staff.
And last but not least, Mr Thomson tried to pick a fight on his way out with our CEO, obviously upset that he had not had the opportunity to do so earlier. He claims to have been verbally abused, however, another member of staff witnessed and corroborated nothing of the sort happened.”
Earlier this week the Mr Thomson issued via the Fresh Air For Penrith group what he called a “Final Formal request for the Leo Omega Proteins, to close it's Penrith animal rendering plant”
A spokesperson for Evolve Penrith have said that there is an open opportunity for anyone in the community to join the Omega Liaison group that was established over 10 years ago and has members of the local community and other local organisations including Evolve Penrith engaging with the owners of the Penrith site to address issues and concerns of the local community in a productive way.
It's unfortunate that the local councils stopped participating in the liaison group and that the Fresh Air for Penrith group has consistently refused to get involved and have a grown up conversation to address the concerns and views they have and maybe to gain some facts. ”
The Fresh air for Penrith social media account states that it had shortly after the site visit deleted a number of Facebook posts it had made and that “a number of Facebook pages and people have also been blocked from viewing or commenting on this page.”
The posts deleted reportedly included posts about individuals, local councillors, the Leo Group, local MP Dr Neil Hudson and other local businesses.
Local residents in the Castletown area of Penrith our reporter has spoken with have said "although there is still occasional issues of odours these are nothing like issues from 10 or 15 years ago."
One resident said, “I can’t be the only one who does not even notice it nowadays”.
Another local resident said “Mr Thomson should seriously consider trying to work with The Leo Group instead of constantly sniping at them. This way he might actually stop alienating people.”
The environment agency has previously issued a statement that they are monitoring multiple sites and facilities around Penrith linked to odour issues not just the Omega Proteins factory on Greystoke road.
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