Residents donned gasmasks and hazmat suits as they took to the streets demanding the immediate closure of a controversial tip they say is harming their health.
Some carried slogans including ‘Stop the Stink’ and ‘Stop Poisoning Our Kids’.
Thousands of locals in the seaside town of Fleetwood claim they are having to put up with noxious gases from the landfill site which fills the air with the smell of rotten eggs.
People – including children – are suffering nosebleeds, headaches, chest infections, nausea and breathing problems that have left some in hospital.
Parents are also having to take their children out of schools and nurseries when they fall ill.
Over 100 people turned up at a protest march in the Lancashire town this morning calling for closure of the Jameson Road site.
Operator Transwaste was served an enforcement notice by the Environment Agency in January which ‘required the operator to ensure that areas of the landfill are adequately covered to reduce the risk of odour’.
But problems have continued, residents say.
Blackpool North and Fleetwood MP Lorraine Beavers has joined calls for the tip to be shut down immediately and says people are at ‘breaking point’.
In a Facebook post earlier this month, she said the landfill operator, Transwaste, needed to be ‘held to account.’
She added: ‘We’ve had enough. We need to make sure the Jameson Road landfill site is closed.
‘Despite repeated interventions from the Environment Agency, the stink is getting worse.’
Jess Brown, 35, who set up Action Against Jameson Road Landfill two years ago and now boasts 4,400 members, says there has been almost 18,000 complaints in that time against the company.
She also says Transwaste is guilty of breaches of its permit mainly by not properly managing the amount of gas seeping from the site.
She says her mother Janice, 67, has had repeated chest infections while daughter Maliha, 9, suffers sneezing fits, stinging eyes and throat infections.
She said: ‘You cannot escape the smell. It is literally as if you are being gassed.
‘You cannot open the windows or go out because the smell is so terrible. Walking children to school is a nightmare.
‘What is it doing to our health? No-one is looking at this properly to see what damage is really being done to people.’
Jess believes air quality monitors in the town are not being properly used and give out inadequate data especially on the days when the smell is at its worse.
She also believes Wyre council, which owns the site and receives £200,000 a year in rent from Transwaste, has a ‘conflict of interest’.
She added: ‘Thousands of people are being affected by this including what hit is doing to houses prices, local businesses and tourism.
‘It has to end. We have suffered enough.’
Richard Falcon, 54, who suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, claims he has been hospitalised twice because of the noxious gases he has inhaled.
He said: ‘On both occasions I had a bacterial infection which means it was from what I was breathing.
‘Before 2024 I used to have the occasional chest infection but now I am getting two or three a month. I have had 20 prescriptions for antibiotics since last October.
‘The smell is appalling, a sulphury, gassy smell that is highly unpleasant and nobody can escape it no matter where you live in the town.
‘Everyone is talking about it because it is getting worse every day and no-one is doing anything about it.’
One father, who asked not to be named, said both of his children, a daughter aged 13 and a son aged 10 have had to be treated for the effects of the smell.
He said: ‘My son was hospitalised with a really weird infection and no-one could identify what was wrong with him.
‘He was a perfectly healthy boy but now he is getting nosebleeds, headaches and respiratory problems while my daughter, who suffers from breathing problems, is continually complaining about what she is breathing in.
‘What is going on is pure evil. This smell is all around and there is nothing you can do to escape it.’
Coroner’s undertaker Daniel Turner, 30, who has joined the protest group, told the Daily Mail: ‘I have been in houses where bodies have been undiscovered for months so I know all about vile smells and what is coming off the landfill is really bad.
‘You come home from work and your house stinks. It hits you at the back of the throat.
‘I haven’t had any illnesses because of it but, like most people round here, you spend your days heaving as if you are going to be sick.
‘It is beyond a joke.’
The landfill site was only reopened by Transwaste in late 2023 after it was closed in 2017.
It has been found the Jameson Road site has previously been used to legally dump waste that included the potentially carcinogenic ‘forever chemical’ perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has since been banned.
Residents, who believe the re-opening of the site has disturbed previously dumped rubbish, say the smell has worsened in recent weeks and is now almost ‘unbearable’.
The Environment Agency says reopening long‑inactive landfills can release gases including hydrogen sulphide, which produces a “rotten egg” odour although it claims there are no health issues connected to the site.
A spokesman said: ‘There are several potential reasons behind the recent rise in odour. These may include the current weather conditions, the effects of the interim capping works, the natural acceleration of waste breakdown, or issues with how systems and processes are being managed on site.
‘At this stage, there may be a combination of factors contributing to the problem, and we are continuing to assess them carefully.’
The agency added: **‘**The community should not have to tolerate odours that affect their environment.
‘We have pushed the operator to cover areas of the site where waste has recently been deposited to reduce odour and are pressing them to install permanent capping as soon as possible to prevent future emissions.
‘Environment Agency officers are on the ground actively monitoring the situation, and if we don’t see improvements, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action.’
Transwaste’s owners, Mercury Group, said the smells are part of a section of the site known as Cell 6 ‘reaching its final contours and requiring permanent capping’.
The company, which has a lease until the end of 2027, said: ‘Transwaste submitted a proposal for permanent capping to the Environment Agency in early December 2025 and have been awaiting approval. We have been in discussions with the EA this week and we are hopeful that given consent, we will be able to start permanent capping on Monday.
‘The independent EA air quality monitoring indicates that air quality in the area is well within Word Health Organisation safety limits.’
