Ansa has received a clean bill of health from the Environment Agency following a spot check because of residents' complaints about smells coming from the waste transfer site.

The site inspection, which has recently been published, was carried out at the hub on Cledford Lane in Middlewich at the end of October after the Environment Agency (EA) and Cheshire East Council received a high number of complaints about the smell.

An EA waste regulatory officer and a representative from Cheshire East carried out the inspection to determine whether on-site operations were causing the stink.

The EA report states: "The site has two waste transfer buildings. Mixed waste is deposited in one of the buildings and recyclable waste, such as plastic and cardboard, is stored in the other building.

"The mixed, non-recyclable waste is shredded and taken off site as RDF [to turn it into a fuel].

"At the time of the inspection, both buildings contained very low levels of waste. All waste is stored on concreted, impermeable surfacing. All concrete was in good condition.

"A carbon filtration system is used in both waste transfer buildings to filter and reduce odour. The carbon filters in both buildings were in use at the time of the inspection and were in good working order.

"No odour was detected outside of the waste transfer buildings."

The inspectors were told Ansa conducts its own off-site odour monitoring and that no smell from its waste operation has been detected.

The EA report states that no permit breaches were identified during the inspection.

Cllr Jonathan Parry (Lab), who is one of many Middlewich residents to have noticed the stink, said he doesn't believe the inspection went far enough.

Cllr Jonathan Parry

"I've not had as many reports from residents this year so obviously the frequency of changing the carbon pellets [to reduce odour] has definitely made a difference, but it's still not perfect and I think it's looking at all the other factors of where the smell can come from," Cllr Parry told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"It may be that the EA is right and no smell is leaking out of the sheds where the waste is stored from, but at some point that waste has to come out of that shed and travel away from Ansa

"Then it comes down to the waste being transferred, because that's exposed to the air. Is that sealed within the lorry? Can it escape? That's not going to have the level of filtration, so that smell will escape from the lorry and that smell will travel."

He added: "The lorry might only be in Middlewich for five minutes but that five minutes is enough for that smell to escape and travel to an area of Middlewich and people will smell it, and the lorries are coming through quite frequently. I'm no expert on it, but I think that is something that does need looking into."