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Legal threat over Seaton landfill 'neighbour'
COUNCIL bosses could face legal action after angry residents joined forces to tackle a controversial landfill site towering over their homes.
A group of 23 residents living in Harvester Close, in Seaton Carew, say their quality of life has been "destroyed" by the Thomlinson Road landfill site.
They have formed RAWOOD (Residents Against Waste On Our Doorstep) and have enlisted Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) in a bid to see the site capped off and landscaped.
They claim there have been "long-standing breaches" of planning permissions at the site and that they cannot sell their homes as no-one wants to live next to a landfill site.
The site, on the Longhill Industrial Estate, is run by Stranton Waste Salvage (SWS), which is a subsidiary company of Niramax Holdings.
Solicitors have sent a letter to Hartlepool Borough Council asking the local authority to force SWS to stop tipping and start landscaping, otherwise they could face legal action.
PIL say their clients bought houses when the adjacent landfill was covered with grass, shrubs, and wildlife.
They say residents were "startled" in the summer of 2008 when the covering was ripped up and waste began to be deposited into the landfill.
The application to build houses on the site was approved in January 2002, the same time permission was granted to extend the life of the landfill.
But the housing plans were granted "without any knowledge" of the landfill application.
A further planning application was approved in February 2003 that required the landfill, which has been used to deposit putrescible waste that creates strong odours, be capped within one year and landscaped.
Members of RAWOOD say they have repeatedly raised their concerns with the council, who maintain the landfill has permission to deposit waste until 2018.
Phil Shiner, solicitor for Public Interest Lawyers, said: "In my 30 years of practice as a solicitor I have never come across a situation in which residents are living literally next door to an active landfill, let alone a landfill accepting putrescible waste.
"This situation is the result of serious failings by the council.
"That the council, having created this conflict, have since remained idle while our clients' lives are blighted by odour, rubbish, noise, swarms of seagulls and rats is astonishing.
"The council must now act in the public interest as it is obliged to and require the tipping to stop and the landfill to be capped and landscaped immediately."
A spokesman for RAWOOD said: "Our quality of life has been destroyed by the landfill next door.
"We cannot open our windows for the smell, we have rubbish blowing into our gardens, the area is infested with rats and flies, and we are continually surrounded by swarms of seagulls.
"We cannot sell our houses and move elsewhere because nobody wants to live here with the landfill as it is.
"We have tried desperately to get the council to take effective action, but nothing has been done.
"We hope the council will now take our situation seriously and face up to the problem which it has created."
A council spokesman said: "We can confirm that we have received correspondence from Public Interest Lawyers on behalf of a number of the Harvester Close residents.
"We are currently considering the content of that correspondence and will respond fully to it in due course.
"It would therefore be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage."
A spokesman for SWS said they did not wish to comment at this stage.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
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