Residents in Fleetwood, Lancashire, say a continuous foul smell from the reopened Transwaste landfill site is making people ill and making everyday life unbearable.
The complaint comes in a town better known for sea air and fish and chips. Instead, some visitors and locals have been confronted with what one local newspaper captured in a stark headline: “Welcome to Fleetwood,” the paper said, calling it “the town that smells of bin juice.”
The issue has become a source of anger for people living nearby, who say the odour from the site is not a brief nuisance but something persistent and overwhelming. The report describes residents as being left with the sense that the smell is affecting health and quality of life.
For a seaside resort that many associate with fresh air, the contrast has been especially sharp. Families may have been heading to the coast for a day out, but the stench surrounding the landfill has given Fleetwood a very different reputation among those who live there.
Local frustration is reflected in the language being used about the site. One resident described it as “an abomination,” a sign of just how strongly the situation is being felt in the community.
The reopened landfill has now become a flashpoint in the town, with the smell itself at the centre of the dispute. Residents say the odour is not only unpleasant but disruptive, affecting the normal rhythm of life in the area.
Fleetwood’s experience highlights the tension that can arise when waste operations return close to homes and public spaces. In this case, the complaints are focused on the intensity and persistence of the stench, which locals say is impossible to ignore.
The anger in the town suggests that the problem has moved beyond annoyance and into a broader argument about what people should have to live with. For now, residents say they are left coping with the smell and the consequences it brings.
