Environment Agency investigating reports of 'fly nuisance' at South Yorkshire waste facility

The Environment Agency is investigating reports of 'fly nuisance' at a South Yorkshire waste facility, after receiving a high number of complaints from residents.
The waste treatment facility at Bolton Road, Manvers near Bolton-upon-DearneThe waste treatment facility at Bolton Road, Manvers near Bolton-upon-Dearne
The waste treatment facility at Bolton Road, Manvers near Bolton-upon-Dearne

The high number of calls to the regulator’s incident hotline yesterday evening and this morning follow planned maintenance works at the Manvers waste recycling site to replace a vehicle access door.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We believe the removal of an access door to the waste treatment facility, which is an enclosed space, is a contributing factor to an increase in reports of fly nuisance from local residents. It is a condition of the operator’s environmental permit to take appropriate action to prevent fly nuisance and we have made it clear that action must be taken to address the issue.”

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Maintenance works to replace the vehicle access door are currently taking place and the operator expects this to be complete by 5pm today.

And maintenance works scheduled for a second vehicle access door at the plant have now been suspended in order that a revised method of work can be employed to avoid a repeat of this current situation.

The waste treatment facility at Bolton Road, Manvers near Bolton-upon-Dearne is operated by Renewi on behalf of Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils.

Renewi has also arranged for the delivery of fly-proof netting to the site, which will be used in the event of any unavoidable delay to the door works.

The firm says it has also sought to control fly numbers by:

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· Clearing the area in the immediate vicinity of the door maintenance works of waste

· Diverting 500 tonnes of scheduled waste reception to other facilities to reduce waste throughput and vehicle movements

· Contracting additional fly treatment

The Manvers facility extracts recyclable and compostable material from 250,000 tonnes of household waste per annum.