Neighbours fume over farmland stench

Bob Weedon — driven indoors by the smell

RESIDENTS claim foul smells from waste spread on farmland is driving them to distraction.

Households on Mossley’s Hey Farm Estate say the stench has plagued them for two years and means they can’t use their gardens.

But the farmer involved says it’s just a small minority of people complaining and the smell occurs only 20 days a year.

David Sykes Agricultural Contractors has a contract with Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority to recycle domestic green waste from councils across the area, including Oldham, which is checked by the Environment Agency.

The garden and food waste is collected from residents’ brown bins and composted at a site in Todmorden before being spread on part of his land, which stretches from Manchester Road in Greenfield to Huddersfield Road in Mossley.

But six residents have complained to Tameside Council’s environmental health department about the pong it’s causing.

Retired teacher Bob Weedon (67), who has lived in Huddersfield Road since 1975, said: “These fumes are just drifting across when the wind is in the wrong direction. It smells dreadful.”

While he’s all for recycling, he added: “We have lived here for years and this is an intrusion that prevents us from making use of our garden.

“He doesn’t grow anything on the land and it’s just a way of recycling waste but it absolutely smells dreadful. It’s not a nice, traditional farm smell, which I don’t mind, it’s an evil, chemical smell and it drives people indoors. A lot of people are suffering on a daily basis.”

But Mr Sykes said the waste was a compost, like an organic fertiliser, which is rotting down and has no chemicals in it. He doesn’t spread it at weekends or Bank Holidays.

He said: “When we bring the stuff in on that day it does smell. It smells when we spread it until it’s had a chance to settle down for a day. There’s probably 20 days a year when there’s a smell. It’s not unacceptable.

“It’s just organic material for organic farming. They all want recycling — but not in their backyard.”

A Tameside Council spokesman said: “ Officers from our neighbourhood team will continue to monitor the levels of complaints received and ensure that the farm does all that is reasonably practicable to reduce odour nuisance.”