Penrith odour issues have seen 455 reports in the first six months of 2024 to the Environment Agency as new campaign starts in Penrith over wood dust.
The resident-led campaign ‘Fresh AIR for Penrith’ that is campaigning against the odour issues known as the Penrith Pong has confirmed, through Freedom of Information requests, that the Environment Agency is still receiving odour complaints with 455 complaints about odour pollution from the Penrith area received in the first six months of 2024. In 2023, the Environment Agency received 1,367 complaints an increase of over 1,000 on the previous year.
"The continuing number of odour complaint reports to the EA, evidence that odour pollution is still a major problem in the town," said lead-campaigner Jeff Thomson, a former Penrith west ward town councillor. He is now calling for odour source, or sources, to be formally named.
"I've made a specific FOI request asking the EA to name the source, or sources, of the odour pollution. There has been huge amounts of speculation and accusations about the source. It is now time the EA – along with Westmorland & Furness Council's environmental health department – formally name the source(s)," said Thomson.
Currently, at the request of Fresh AIR for Penrith and former local MP Dr Neil Hudson, the council is investigating the 2023 odour reports to establish if any constitute a 'statutory nuisance'.
"Whatever the outcome of the council's investigation and the EA's response to odour complaints, the fact is Penrith, its residents' health and wellbeing, its economy, its retail and tourism sectors, and the environment are all suffering.
"We need the formal naming of the odour source and action to stop the offender," said Thomson.
The Environment Agency has previously said eight separate sites around Penrith were identified as contributing to Penrith’s odours but has never named them.
On Tuesday Penrith’s new MP Markus Campbell-Savours said he was holding the “First of many meetings with the Environment Agency at their Ghyll Mount office in Penrith.”
Top of his agenda was “How they handle and investigate odour complaints in Penrith”
However, despite election campaign pledges made by Markus Campbell-Savours to meet with the Fresh AIR for Penrith group, Mr Thomson has said “Markus Campbell Savours will NOT meet with Fresh AIR for Penrith despite his pre-election 'spin'”.
A second group has formed in the Castletown area of Penrith battling another form of air pollution,
The group is battling what they have called a blight of wood dust and resin that is covering vehicles and properties and leading to health concerns among residents. The Environment Agency and Westmorland and Furness Council are involved in investigating the issues and working with a Penrith business to address the concerns of residents with an interim solution expected to be put in place within the next two months and an alternative dust abatement solution for dust emissions expected to be procured shortly.