Five hundred complaints about tip smell from people in Kettering and Corby already this year

The Environment Agency has received more than 500 complaints about the smell from the Mick George landfill site in Rushton so far this year.

That's nearly double the total number of complaints for the whole of 2019.

There were also two permit breaches recorded by the authorities in May this year.

A Freedom of Information request by the Northants Telegraph followed a surge in the number of people contacting our reporters to complain about smells from the site earlier this year. People living on the Danesholme and Oakley Vale estates in Corby, as well as many living in areas to the north and west of the Kettering borough, had reported foul odours that they believed were emanating from the site.

The FOI documents revealed there were 74 complaints about smells in 2017, in 2018 there were 337 complaints, there were 282 complaints in 2019 and a huge increase in the first nine months of this year when there were 536 complaints registered by the Environment Agency.

They also show that the firm breached its permit 13 times last year - mostly relating to odour issues. There were two breaches so far this year and eight warnings in 2018, with two site warnings issued that year relating to poor covering of previously-tipped waste.

At the beginning of this year, a Corby councillor called for the tip to be shut down for good after a groundswell of complaints.

The company was warned over smells from the site last year, and after a major fire last summer the Environment Agency said the company had twice breached its permit.

Although the existing landfill is close to being full, it is understood that the firm has options to extend on to neighbouring land. Jon Stump, CEO of the Mick George Group said he believed that the rise in the number of complaints could be an attempt to halt any application to extend their operations. He said: "Both Public Health England and the Environment Agency have each audited the site on multiple occasions concluding that activities from the landfill site shall be free from odour at levels likely to cause pollution outside the facility.

"Both regulatory bodies are satisfied that the odour control techniques and gas extraction systems being employed, are appropriately managing odour emissions from the site.

"Subsequently, we would question the validity of the increased volume of reports with respect of the related concerns and instead suggest that this is likely an attempt to block any proposed extension of the site."

Councillor Mark Pengelly, lead member for environment at Corby Council said that he and his colleagues had met with local MPs, representatives from the Environment Agency and Mick George bosses to find a way forward.

"The company was very open with us and it was positive meeting and they have agreed to work with us to try to improve the situation.

"We know that some of the smells are actually coming from farmers' fields so we're going to see if local landowners will agree to tell us when they're muck-spreading so at least we can inform people if there are going to be smells.

"Mick George have also said they'll look at increasing the perfumes they can use to improve the odour for people."