Residents in Newbiggin continue to face issues of noise odour and an increase in HGV’s using Flusco landfill site with a substantial increase in vehicles taking waste into the site daily.
Members of the local community have raised the issues with Westmorland and Furness Council, Local MP Tim Farron and the Environment Agency.
The issues and concerns of residents have even seen government minister involvement in relation to concerns about Scottish Government’s policy leading to landfill waste being deposited in Flusco and other English landfill sites.
The Under Secretary of State for Nature for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mary Creagh CBE MP met with Gillian Martain MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy in the Scottish Government on 3rd July to discuss the issue.
Following the meeting with Scottish government ministers Mary Creagh CBE MP said “The Scottish Government has assured me that they do not believe that it is acceptable for a large amount of waste to be transported from Scotland to landfills in England and they are working closely with Scottish Local Authorities to prevent this outcome. Defra officials are continuing to engage with those in the Scottish Government on potential impacts to England that may arise from implementation of the Scottish landfill ban.”
The Environment Agency has in the last month carried out a site inspection and served an enforcement notice on the site operator in respect of a number of matters on the site.
The environment agency have said “In response to concerns from nearby residents the Environment Agency (EA) has taken a range of significant actions”
“The EA has intensified inspections of the landfill, including on-site and utilising drones for site monitoring.”
“An Enforcement Notice was issued on 10 October 2025 following site inspections that demonstrated significant non-compliance with permit conditions.”
“The Enforcement Notice requires Seletia (F) Ltd to take specific steps to bring the operations back into compliance and remediate the impacts.”
“The Environment Agency considers that the following conditions of the environmental permit are being contravened: Permitted activities, Landfill engineering – New cell construction proposals – changes, Landfill gas management, Emissions to water, Groundwater and surface water monitoring”
“Because there is an unauthorised activity taking place on site involving deposit, transfer and storage of waste on the transfer pad; engineering work to the access roads and within the base of the quarry has taken place without the required approvals; landfill gas is not being managed appropriately; contaminated liquid is discharging from an unauthorised emission point; and the required groundwater and surface monitoring is not possible due to infrastructure damage.”
“The site operators are required to take steps set out by the environment agency by dates specified in order to remedy the contravention.”
Westmorland and Furness council is also considering taking enforcement action after receiving of a number of out-of-hours working allegations at the site.
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