![]() The food recycling operation has never been served with any kind of enforcement notice and, as a sealed system, emits no odours from the point at which food is delivered until the end-product, called digestate, is spread on local farmland and fields as biofertiliser. "We know that odours and activity associated with our dairy farm are often incorrectly attributed to the recycling facility and anaerobic digester we have on site. Just like spreading raw slurry to fertilise, which farmers have done for centuries, digestate biofertiliser gives off an odour when it is spread. Part of that process is to spread digestate biofertiliser on the land, which takes about seven to ten days solid work. "The recent warm spell coincided with our latest sileage harvest. This keeps the clean rainwater separate from slurry to reduce the overall volume of slurry the farm is producing. We have taken significant measures to manage the cattle slurry, such as improving rainwater management. There are cracks in my walls and on the front of my house."Ī spokesperson for the Bryn Group told WalesOnline: "The cows eat a lot of sileage, which we grow on our farm, and produce a large amount of slurry, which we process on-site along with food waste from across Caerphilly in our anaerobic digester. I've had to have the doors refitted four times because of it. The dogs panic and come running in the house because they can feel the ground going. He said: "Then there is the blasting too. Adding to the misery is the unsettling blasting that's causing structural damage to homes. But they were left no choice other than to stay put when the "absolutely disgusting" stench became a deal breaker, and said "everyone that visited knew it wasn't a typical farm smell". One local, a diabetic who put their house up for sale so they could downsize after a fall down the stairs, said they had three people come and see the house in one day. ![]() After 20 years of complaining we haven't got an inch." ![]() "They say they rarely get complaints anymore but it's because people have got so fed up with phoning. ![]() You can phone and phone but nothing ever gets done about it," lamented one resident, who feels that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Other times it's like there's a public toilet in your back garden. It's like a sulphurous smell, like acid has gone up your nose. She added: "We've been surrounded by farms here for more than a century and we've never had smells like we have now. But Ms Spencer, former secretary of the liaison group, contested the nature of the smell and said: "It isn't a typical farming smell." A second anaerobic digester has also recently been commissioned and will soon also be used on the site, but the firm insists that the digesting process does not cause the smell.ĭespite assurances from the company, locals claim that the group's eco-friendly use of the land has turned living in the area into a "nightmare", and have argued that Gelligaer, home to nearly 20,000 people, was never an appropriate location for a waste management plant. Residents have often blamed this for the smell. Since 2016, the Bryn group has used an anaerobic digester to turn food waste delivered by local councils into a "food soup", which is blended with faeces and urine from the cattle on the site and turned into electricity. She also alleges that quarry blasts for sandstone have caused damage to her home. Sherry Spencer, a 72-year-old lifelong resident of Gelligaer, said the odour from the plant has hindered her attempts to sell her property. Despite re-establishing a community liaison group with the Bryn site earlier this year, residents feel they "don't get an inch" in their conversations with the company and the council, and continue to feel ignored. While locals don't begrudge the Price family for successfully diversifying their business, they have told local media they are fed up with what they describe as a "constant stench 365 days a year". Among its many big customers is Caerphilly County Borough Council, which also regulates the group's operations. The Bryn Group's services include recycling, composting, converting food waste into renewable electricity and fertiliser, and producing sandstone for road surfaces at its quarry, reports Wales Online.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |