The Leo Group Ltd who operate the Omega Proteins plant west of Penrith are to hold a public community liaison meeting on Wednesday 2 August 2023 at 6.30pm.
The meeting will take place at the Leo Group owners Newton Rigg Campus.
The company announcing the invitation said “As we continue to engage with the local community of Penrith, we invite residents to a Community Liaison Meeting at the NEWTON RIGG CAMPUS on Wednesday 2 August 2023 at 6.30pm.
At this meeting you will not only have the opportunity to learn about the rendering process, the products manufactured and the company's huge investment in odour control equipment and renewable energy, but also to voice your concerns. We will listen to you and work together to understand the issues.”
The invitation comes in the week that the environment agency distributed a community update to residents In a newsletter released earlier this month, they acknowledged Omega’s improvements designed to minimise odour implemented over that period and added: “Over the last six months we have had a period of high levels of odour complaints.
In February of this year, we had 103 reports made through to our incident hotline, more recently in May we had 114 reports and an escalation in June of 223 reports of odour.
So far in July we have had 73”.
“For the last few weeks, we have had officers attending the local area of the Omega Proteins site, whether or not we have received reports of odour.
We have looked at the times reports are made to us and looked to see if specific weather conditions play a part. This has helped us target our monitoring.”
However the environment agency said they have only identified that some not all of the reported odours as originating from the Omega Proteins.
In 2021 the Environment Agency issued a statement that they were monitoring and investigating upto eight separate locations around Penrith in connection with odour issues that have collectively become known over the years as the Penrith Pong.
The environment agency operates a 24 hour national helpline that residents can call to report
• Odours
• collapsed or badly damaged river banks
• damage or danger to the natural environment
• dead fish or fish gasping for air
• flooding from main rivers or the sea
• people taking water illegally from rivers, streams, canals or underground sources such as wells
• incidents at Environment Agency-regulated waste sites
• main rivers blocked by a vehicle or fallen tree causing risk of flooding
• poaching or illegal fishing
• pollution to water or land
• unusual changes in river flow
Environment Agency incident hotline telephone number is 0800 80 70 60
The Leo Group also operate a dedicated 24hour direct response number for Penrith area residents and businesses to use if they experience any odour issues to enable the company to respond promptly to any issues that may be identified as origination from the Omega Site by one of the firms environmental team who the company say will attend any reports to investigate and verify within 15 minutes.
The direct number for the Omega hotline is 07976 857435.
Those wishing to attend the Leo Group community liaison meeting at Newton Rigg on the 2nd of August 2023 at 6:30pm the company has asked they confirm by emailing pr@leogroupltd.co.uk
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