Uppingham Homes Community Land Trust is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as a Community Benefit Society. Acting on the advice of the Environment Agency, The Society has requested that Rutland County Council support The Society in ensuring compliance with the Environmental Protection Act by Anglian Water (AW).
The Society has found it necessary to write seeking urgent legal action by RCC, as the relevant enforcement agency, owing to the astonishing admission by AW that it has for many years been unable to control the odour emissions from its Water Treatment Plant in Seaton Road, Uppingham, Rutland and will continue to be unable to do so despite a recent announcement of more capital expenditure at the plant.
Having taken expert advice, The Society is advised that the main issue appears to be a design fault in the layout of the plant that means the incoming waste pipe terminates in the open air immediately inside the plant boundary and is uncovered, as are its settlement tanks. Despite site meetings to identify the cause, accepted by the A W site manager, AW has chosen to put a blight on the area, including neighbouring land owned by Uppingham Homes. This is currently being worked on by volunteers preparing the site for a £1.5M community housing project.
Elsewhere in the UK water authorities have been required by their local planning authority to physically cap similar open developments such that no odour is emitted. Hence there are many successful and attractive community projects and housing developments adjacent to water treatment plants around the country. This of course requires capital expenditure to execute and The Society believes this lies at the heart of AW’s failure to act.
Some years ago, a former owner of our site requested that RCC serve an Abatement Nuisance Order on AW which allegedly responded by stating that no odour existed. Following an enquiry from The Society, AW is indicating it can now measure the air pollution it generates more precisely and that an unlawful odour will indeed blight The Society’s site and that part of the Uppingham neighbourhood for the foreseeable future.
In its letter, The Society makes it clear that the situation is not acceptable to local community representatives, hence its our approach the county’s Chief Environmental Health Officer seeking prompt action to ensure such a potential danger to the town is removed.