Frequently asked questions

Why was Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers granted planning permission? 

The development was granted outline planning permission in 2017 (Ref. W/17/1518) and reserved matters consent in 2021 (Ref. W/21/0707). The starting point for the assessment of these applications was that this was an existing industrial development site with a long history of use for industrial purposes. In this context there could be no objection to the principle of a redevelopment for industrial purposes. Nevertheless, the environmental impacts of the development were carefully considered. 

Along with the established industrial use of the site and the distance from the nearest dwellings, the assessment of the application concluded that there were no grounds to refuse planning permission. This assessment is set out in the Officer Reports on the planning applications. These can be viewed on our website here.

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What is the Environment Agency's responsibility for investigating issues associated with the Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers (PL/BP) facility? 

The Environment Agency issued PL with an Environmental permit on 17 April 2023. The Environment Agency advises an operator regarding its obligations under its environmental permit.

It is the role of the Environment Agency to assess compliance with the permits and to take appropriate regulatory action if Environment Agency officers identify any breaches. The Environment Agency expects the operator of any permitted site to use appropriate measures to control potential amenity impacts (such as flies and odour).

The Environment Agency regulate in accordance with its Environment Agency enforcement and sanctions policy - GOV.UK  and by reference to the Regulators’ Code. You can find further information on how the Environment Agency assess environmental permit compliance here Waste operations and installations: assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance - GOV.UK

PL/BP's Permit is a public document and a copy can be requested here – permit number EPR/KB3404CU.

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What is Warwick District Council's (WDC's) responsibility for investigating issues associated with Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers (PL/BP)? 

WDC has a duty to investigate, as far as reasonably practicable, matters listed as potential statutory nuisances under Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. 

For something to be considered a statutory nuisance, generally it must be significantly impacting someone's use of their home and be happening on a regular basis or be considered prejudicial to health. 

For us to take any action under this legislation, a council officer must witness in person how a person is being impacted.  

Please note – because there is an Environment Agency Permit in place, the council needs permission from the Secretary of State to support any legal action. These restrictions are put in place to avoid duplicating regulations.  

The primary legislation is that of the Permit, this means the Environment Agency is the main enforcement or regulating authority. 

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Who do I report issues to? 

  • Reports about flies, odour, or noise, that are related to Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers (PL/BP) or any other site permitted by the Environment Agency must be reported to the Environment Agency. This is because the site is permitted and regulated by the Environment Agency, not Warwick District Council (WDC).
  • You can report issues linked to an Environment Agency permitted site to the 24-hour Environment Agency incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60. The Environment Agency encourage you to report issues as soon as practically possible. 
  • WDC is assisting residents and the Environment Agency by providing a reactive witnessing response service. If the problem is happening now and it is during WDCs normal working hours (Monday-Friday 09:00-16:30hrs) please call us on 01926 456741. If an officer is available a visit will be carried out. We will need to visit you either at your home or your workplace and witness the issue and how it is impacting you. Reports will be shared with the Environment Agency if found to be potentially linked to a site it regulates.
  • Please note calls received by WDC outside of our normal working hours will be logged, but no further response will be sent.
  • You are also advised to keep a nuisance diary and return any completed logs to the council every few weeks. The diary will be reviewed and compared with the logs from other residents, taking into consideration where residents live, wind direction, duration, and time of occurrence. If a pattern can be established, this will be considered further and shared with the Environment Agency, as appropriate.

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What will the Environment Agency do with my incident report? 

All reports received via the Environment Agency 24-hour incident hotline will be logged and investigated. The Environment Agency will not provide feedback to individual reports of environmental incidents.

You can find information about the action taken by the Environment Agency here https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/west-midlands/leamington-spa-fly-issues/

This online page will next be updated in December 2024. The Environment Agency will also share some frequently asked questions on this online page shortly

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What has been done with complaints to date? 

Warwick District Council has investigated to establish if the issues complained about amount to a statutory nuisance.

Officers have detected some odours in residential homes but not at levels that would trigger action under the relevant legislation.

Also, the legislation is very much limited due to the need to seek permission from the Secretary of State to take any formal legal action.

The Environment Agency has logged and investigated all the reports WDC have shared with it. To be able to substantiate that a report is linked to a permitted site and is in breach of a permit condition, an Environment Agency officer will need to attend the site and confirm activities on site are at a level likely to cause pollution outside the site boundary and the operator is not taking all appropriate measures to control the issue.

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Why do you only respond to real time complaints? 

Warwick District Council is assisting residents and the Environment Agency by providing a reactive witnessing response service. If the problem is happening now and it is during our normal working hours (Monday-Friday 09:00-16:30hrs) please call us on 01926 456741. If an officer is available a visit will be carried out. We will need to visit you either at your home or your workplace and witness the issue and how it is impacting you.

Reports will be shared with the Environment Agency if found to be potentially linked to a site it regulates. 

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Do officers consider wind direction? 

Yes – officers use the windsock at Shire Foods and online data. A windsock looks like this.

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What monitoring have your officers undertaken when they visit people's homes and/or the area? 

Our officers will contact the resident to check they are home, and if they can visit the resident to assess the nuisance and how it is impacting them at their property.

Our officers will also attempt to trace the nuisance back to the source and walk the general area to try to confirm this.  Because the odours in the area are very intermittent and have not been strong when officers have visited, categorically identifying the source, to an evidential standard, is very difficult

On several occasions other sources, not related to the recycling site, have been found to be the source of the odour at times.

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Why haven't you done anything about the odour? 

Warwick District Council (WDC) can only act where there is the legal power to do so, and in such circumstances where legislation allows.  

It is the role of the Environment Agency to investigate reports of amenity issues (such as odour) linked to sites it permits, assess compliance with permit conditions and take appropriate regulatory action if any breaches are identified.

WDC are supporting the Environment Agency by redirecting additional resources to help witness what residents are reporting and providing reports to the Environment Agency about what officers have witnessed. 

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How can I help support the investigation? 

Please continue to report any fly issues, odour, or noise linked to Environment Agency permitted sites to its 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60. Your reports help build a picture of the issue, inform its investigation and allow it to feedback to permitted sites the effect any measures being implemented are having.

Before contacting the council (or before adding a note in your diary sheet), please check the source of the issue. When reporting the complaint, advise the council what you have done to verify this. 
If your evidence was to be used for legal purposes, you may be required to explain to a court what you did to identify the source, it would not be sufficient to state the issue was not happening before, especially when there have been several confirmed cases where other sources have been identified.

Please do not rely on any third-party accounts or be influenced by social media reports as that can make you jump to assumptions. In legal terms, an assumption refers to a belief or supposition made without concrete evidence or proof. 
Any reports you make must be what you have witnessed personally and would need to be backed up by your own witness statements, including what you did to verify the source.

 

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What information do you need to help investigate my complaint? 

Warwick District Council (WDC) is encouraging those impacted to keep a nuisance diary and return any completed logs to us every few weeks. Diaries will be reviewed and compared with the logs from other residents, taking into consideration where residents live, wind direction, duration, and time of occurrence. If a pattern can be established, this will be considered further and shared with the Environment Agency.

WDC also need residents to report issues in real time, where the problem is happening now and during normal working hours, and to provide access to their home or workplace for officers to witness it. 

 

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How have you not found an issue yet?  

Warwick District Council officers have attended when residents have reported issues, in real time, and have visited outside of normal office hours. Some odour has been witnessed but not at the intensity reported. The odours are also intermittent, so it’s been very difficult to trace it back to a source.

Often the information supplied has been provided after the event has happened, so it has not been witnessed by officers.

For planning visits outside of normal office hours, only a few people have sent in diaries, therefore establishing a pattern has not been possible. 

 

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When your officers smell something unusual, what happens then? 

Not very strong, intermittent odour has been observed on some occasions and this has been reported to the Environment Agency to assist with investigation and monitoring of compliance with the permit.

The Environment Agency has logged and investigated all the reports WDC have shared with it.  To be able to substantiate that a report is linked to a permitted site and is in breach of a permit condition, an Environment Agency officer will need to attend the site and confirm activities on site are at a level likely to cause pollution outside the site boundary and the operator is not taking all appropriate measures to control the issue.

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Have you considered individual medical issues of complainants? 

Under statutory nuisance legislation Warwick District Council can only consider the ‘average’ person, which would not include shift patterns or health issues or sensitivities.  

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Do you believe a blocked drain or food bins are causing the odour/flies being reported by residents? 

Warwick District Council officers have witnessed odour associated with bin collection days, muck spreading, bonfires and drain blockages in the area, which residents reported were coming from the Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers (PL/BP) facility.
This is why it is especially important to be sure of the source of an odour before reporting it. 

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How have you responded to complaints received outside of normal office hours? 

Visits have been made out of hours when officers consider they might be able to witness what is being reported, however, to date it has been difficult with the information supplied to identify a pattern. 

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Can I take my own action at all? 

Yes, you can under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Please seek legal advice before considering this as there is a process that you would need to follow.  

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What can the council do about noisy gulls in the area?

Several noise complaints have been received about noisy seagulls in the area. Seagulls’ nests are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and actions to control these birds are licensed by Natural England and must be for reasons of protecting public health and safety. There is no evidence that seagulls are being attracted by the waste facility site as there isn’t an available food source. 

We have also been made aware (and been provided with photographs) that somebody has been leaving piles of bread around the estate. We would encourage people not to do this, not only can it attract birds but also vermin.

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I have seen a video on social media that shows an open wastewater treatment (WWT) tank on the Plasgran Limited/Berry Circular Polymers (PL/BP) site, what is happening with this?

 The Council has contacted the Environment Agency about the WWT. The Environment Agency has indicated that the tank is not included in the Permit to operate but is investigating whether it should have been, WDC is waiting on a further response about this from the Environment Agency.

In the meantime, WDC officers visited the site on 9th December and met with managers to discuss the ongoing issues, and the operation of the WWT plant. Officers were given an overview of the operation and maintenance of the WWT. It was noted that the site does not always receive timely updates regarding complaints, making it difficult to determine in real time whether they are linked to any on-site operations. As a result, improved communications have been established between the Council and site operators. Previously, WDC reported all complaints received and findings to the Environment Agency. This process has now been updated so that when officers detect odours in the area, they can request immediate access to the site.

During the visit, officers detected an odour on-site; however, it differed in type of smell from odours previously identified in the surrounding area. The site operators confirmed they are continuing to explore additional mitigation measures to prevent odour release from the WWT and remain committed to working collaboratively with both WDC and the Environment Agency.

Please continue to follow the established complaint reporting processes as previously advised  Who do I report issues to?

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