Inside the vacation city that is being stricken by the ‘scent of rotten eggs’ the place ‘kids get sick’ and locals are too scared to stroll their canines

Residents of Fleetwood once lived with the pungent scent of fresh fish caught by workers trawling the waters of the Irish Sea. 

That smell, while not ideal, was strangely welcomed. It signalled that the industry which shaped the north-western town during the 20th century was still thriving. 

In fact, so synonymous did fishing become with the port in the shadows of Blackpool that its local football team, Fleetwood Town, are known to this day as the Cod Men. 

But now, with the scent of cod and mackerel a distant memory, Fleetwood is in danger of becoming famous for a far more potent stench, that of rotten eggs, wafting over from the nearby Jameson Road landfill.

‘It’s awful. It’s absolutely diabolical,’ local campaigner Allison Rowe, 65, tells the Daily Mail. ‘Every day it makes me feel sick. It gives you headaches, sore eyes, the feeling of a hangover. 

‘People come here on day trips, take one step out of their car, smell the stench and turn around. It stinks all day and we’ve been living with this for 24 months.’

Having been closed in 2017, the site – situated within 100 metres of residential homes – was reopened by Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates Ltd in 2023 when they took over the lease from Wyre Borough Council. 

In the almost three years since, a staggering 72 breaches of permit have been recorded, revealing the site’s repeated failure to comply with enforcement notices.

The Environment Agency, which has come in for fierce criticism, claims the ‘rotten egg’ odour being emitted from Jameson Road is not a health issue.

However locals have reached breaking point. Last week they marched the streets of the seaside town demanding the site’s closure.

They say the smell lingering in Fleetwood is almost omnipresent and seeps through walls into their homes, many of which were built decades ago. 

Australian-born Ms Rowe, who moved to the north-west during the pandemic, attributes her asthma and COPD to the smell. Her Staffordshire Bull Terrier Mollie passed away in late February aged 13 in a turn of events she also thinks is no coincidence. 

‘I’ve got a new 14-month-old dog now and, when it’s really bad, I’m scared to take her out in the morning,’ she says. 

‘Dogs’ sense of smell is so much stronger than humans. I had to have Mollie put down and I guarantee the smell made her illness come on quicker.

‘The children in this town go into school feeling sick, crying, having nosebleeds. I never had asthma or COPD until two years ago when this started and now I’ve been diagnosed.

‘A lot of the older people come here to retire, to live by the seaside, their lives are done for. Wyre Borough Council told us to keep our windows and doors closed. We have the right to use our gardens.’ 

Another resident, 54-year-old Richard Falcon, told the Daily Mail last month that he has been admitted to hospital twice due to the gases from the site.

Residents living in villages such as Bispham and Thornton-Cleveleys some five miles away have even reported the stench permeating their streets.

Complaints reached an all-time high of more than 4,000 last month, the EA said as it pressed the operator to install permanent capping to control gas and keep smells in ‘as soon as possible’. 

However MP for North Blackpool and Fleetwood Lorraine Beavers fears the town could be in for a third consecutive ‘terrible’ summer ruined by the landfill site.

She also warned that Fleetwood’s economy could take a hit as tourism continues to dwindle. 

She said: ‘We’re a holiday town. People move to our area because they want to breathe clean air. If I went on holiday and had to put up with that smell, I wouldn’t be coming back. 

‘The smell is just driving people away and businesses are suffering. These businesses employ the local population, it’s massive. 

‘We have got lots of children who are suffering with nosebleeds and headaches. This wasn’t happening before the landfill site. 

‘That’s why we are trying so hard to get this place shut down. We’ve got the right to breathe clean air and that’s our mission. We want it shut down and never opened again. It’s been hell on earth since the day it opened.

‘I had a case of one woman who comes from a working-class background. She had to move out of Fleetwood because she couldn’t breathe here. It broke her heart – she loved Fleetwood. Transwaste don’t care and they’re here to make their money. We want you out now – go back to Hull and leave us alone.’ 

Former doctor Barbara Neil, 61, who lives a couple of miles away, said the town has been ‘living under a dark, stinky cloud for two years’. 

She is part of the Close Jameson Road Landfill action group, one of two in Fleetwood vying to bring an end to the town’s misery. The other, Action Against Jameson Road, is run by Ms Rowe.

Ms Neil said: ‘I was in a meeting with a man from the EA earlier this year and he said, “Well, we’ve had six days in a row without a smell this year”. Whoopty doo!

‘I got into this (running the action group) because of my background as a doctor. I went and asked people about their symptoms and was horrified. 

‘Headaches, respiratory problems, nosebleeds, people with babies being frightened to let them go outside. There was one man who had damaged lungs and was unable to breathe. It’s shocking.’

The Environment Agency told the Daily Mail that they have served an enforcement notice to the site operators requiring them to cover the landfill to reduce the risk of odours spreading. 

It added that Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates are in the process of importing cover materials such as soil and clay to ease the stench. 

A statement read: ‘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 last month that 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 World Health Organisation safety limits.’

A spokesman Wyre Borough Council said: ‘We fully understand how distressing this situation is for residents and we take their concerns very seriously.

‘We have been working closely with the community to listen to their experiences and gather evidence to support a potential case of statutory nuisance.

‘We understand that residents would wish to keep windows open particularly during warmer weather. 

‘To help build a robust body of evidence that meets the legal standard required to present in court, we continue to encourage residents to record incidents of unwanted odour experienced inside their property by completing diary sheets for at least seven consecutive days and by accepting officer verification visits, both of which remain crucial parts of the process under the legislative powers we hold.’