Smell update and visit to the Maltings

I visited The Maltings on Friday 20th July 2018 at 8am, where I was very well received by Director Steve Carrie. I’d particularly like to thank Steve for taking the time to meet with me and for making it such a useful and informative visit.

During the visit I was able to see how The Maltings transforms both food and garden waste into compo...st, as well as a liquid that is then passed on to its sister company to transform into biogas. It was very interesting to discover that The Maltings' sister company provides most of the gas to our homes here in South Milford. The plant currently injects between 12,000 -14,000 cubic meters of methane every 24 hours. Some of it is made from our own grass clippings!

Every year, The Maltings takes some 15,000 tons of local green waste and generates 7,000 tons of compost. This compost is used for crop growth by the farms around South Milford, Lumby, Sherburn and Monk Fryston.

I’ll admit that it is not the best of smells inside The Maltings, but it is certainly not intolerable. Due to the processes involved, it smells of rotten food. However, this is quite unlike the extremely unpleasant sour smell we occasionally have to endure in and around the village. During my visit, the smell was only present within The Maltings itself and wasn’t noticeable outside the site.

Steve reassured me that The Maltings is doing all it can to minimise any bad smells coming into the village. In particular, Steve and The Maltings as a company, maintain that they are committed to contributing positively to this community.

I was pleased to hear from Steve about The Maltings’ procedures which ensure that it is fully operating according to the strict Environment Agency rules. In addition to their regular inspections, The Maltings conducts daily smell inspections, and they have also asked external consultants to help them reduce any emissions further.

When considering the unpleasant smell that sometimes affects South Milford, it is worth noting that the Environment Agency's report stated that it is a combination of biodegradable waste treatment, industrial process and agricultural land spreading. Therefore the smell is very likely to be due to multiple sites and businesses.

We in the South Milford Parish Council would very much welcome and encourage all these businesses to get in touch. It is important to open a dialogue so that the community understands what is being done to prevent the unpleasant smells spreading to the village.

The Parish Council would be very grateful if residents could continue to inform the Environment Agency (phone 0800 80 70 60 or email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk) when the smells occur. This will help their ongoing investigations and hopefully stop the smells from reoccurring.