The Environmental Agency says there has been an “increased number of complaints” at a Lancashire landfill with locals reporting a “terrible odour”.

Clayton Hall Landfill, in Whittle-Le-Woods, has a notorious reputation with complaints about the site stretching back many years.

However, those living nearby are issuing complaints once again and say the bad smell and flies are impacting their day-to-day life.

A recent statement from the Environment Agency (EA) said they had received 72 complaints up to August 12.

After their inspection and discussion with site operator, Quercia, they concluded that the sudden increase in odour could be linked to a fire which took place in July.

Many people who live near the landfill reached out to the Lancashire Telegraph in order to tell their story.

Emma Lambert says she has been impacted by the “huge increase in flies”.

She said: “You can’t leave anything out in the kitchen for five minutes, never mind the garden, without flies landing on it.

“The last straw for me was a big black fly landing in my glass of wine.”

Catherine Heaton said: “The flies, the odour, the rubbish as you walk the footpaths alongside the tip that they never clean up. It's disgusting and disgraceful.”

Lucy Worthington added that the “sheer height of rubbish” at the landfill is an eyesore.

She said: “It has got higher and higher with reassurance from our local councillor that Quercia were intending to deal with this and the only reason stopping progress was the bad weather.

“This was earlier in the year and nothing has changed. Residents are consistently provided with untruths and poor communication about what's going on.”

Joanne Carr said she has to get up in the middle of the night to shut the windows.

She said: “I am not able to sit in the garden because of the smell.

“We've even gone away for the weekend before now to get away from the smell.”

Liz Gent said: “I moved to Spring Meadow from Higher Meadow so have had the full impact of this site for 20 years.

“When my first husband died 18 years ago the flies were terrible then. My last vision of him was swatting the flies away from his chair.

“I could not open the door without about 40 flies coming in. It was embarrassing when people called to pay their last respects with the smells and flies.

“Close it down get rid of the methane smells and flies once and for all.”

Sheila Woods said: “Just swatted the 10th fly in my kitchen.

“Had a barbecue yesterday but it was impossible to sit out and eat food as we constantly had flies landing on it.

“It’s an absolute nightmare. No chance of having friends around.”

Chorley councillor and chair of Clayton Hall landfill liaison committee, Mark Clifford, recently reached out to his social media followers and issued an EA update about the landfill.

It states: "We know that the odour is very distressing for people and it affects all aspects of wellbeing.

“We are prioritising our response to reports of odour from this site.

“The recent fire has affected the site’s leachate management system and caused the leachate to smell more than usual.

“Leachate is gathered at the bottom of a landfill as water moves through the site’s surface and drains through the buried waste.

“We will make sure that Quercia completes the work to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

“We have also received reports of an increased number of flies in the local area. We didn’t see any evidence of fly infestations at the site during our inspection.

“We are speaking to Chorley Council about other potential causes of an increase in flies.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson told the Lancashire Telegraph: “In recent days we have received an increased number of complaints about odour from a regulated site in Chorley.

“Environment Agency officers will be in the area over the coming days monitoring levels of odour and will be ensuring the site operators take steps to minimise the impacts to the community.

"Members of the public can continue to report incidents to our hotline on 0800 80 70 60”.

A spokesperson for Quercia said: “We would like to apologise to the local community for any odour they may have experienced since the recent fire.

"This odour results from water used to fight the fire that then had to be pumped through the landfill’s leachate system before being removed from the site.

"During and after the fire the water used to extinguish it was collected in a newly engineered part of the site.

"The fire service requested that we pump this water back through the site to keep it damp and cool.

"We believe that the ‘fire water’ killed off the bacteria in the site’s leachate treatment facility.

"This resulted in a stagnant tank which is generating some odour.

"Odour suppression is now in place to mitigate the odour coming from the tank and there is an action plan in place to remediate the situation as soon as possible. 

"On Wednesday (August 17) additional odour suppression units will arrive and be installed around the perimeter of the tank.

"Aeration of the tank was turned off last Friday and subsequently the odour coming from it has reduced - although this may be temporary.

"We believe it will take 2 to 3 weeks to restore the leachate treatment system.

"During this time, it will be closely monitored and tankers will continue to remove fire water from the tank.

"This will enable us to add clean water to dilute and ‘re-seed’ the system with new bacteria.”