Inside the holiday town that’s being plagued by the ‘smell of rotten eggs’ where ‘children get sick’ and locals are too scared to walk their dogs

Fleetwood residents once lived off the pungent smell of fresh fish caught by workers trawling the waters of the Irish Sea.

While this scent wasn’t ideal, it was strangely welcome. This signaled that the industry that shaped the northwestern town in the 20th century was still thriving.

In fact, fishing in Blackpool’s shadow became so synonymous with the port that local football team Fleetwood Town are known as the Cod Men to this day.

But now, with the smell of cod and mackerel a distant memory, Fleetwood is in danger of becoming famous for the smell of rotten eggs – a much stronger smell coming from the nearby Jameson Road landfill.

‘Too bad. “This is absolutely evil,” local campaigner Allison Rowe, 65, tells the Daily Mail. ‘It makes me sick every day. Gives headache, eye pain, hangover feeling.

‘People come here for day trips, step out of their cars, smell it and head back. ‘It smells all day long and we’ve been living with it for 24 months.’

The site, which was closed in 2017 and located 100 meters from the residences, was reopened by Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates Ltd in 2023, taking over the lease from Wyre Borough Municipality.

In the almost three years since then, a staggering 72 permit breaches have been recorded, revealing the site has consistently failed to comply with enforcement notices.

Located just 100 meters from residences, the area emits an odor that locals describe as ‘like rotten eggs’

The Environment Agency, which has come under fierce criticism, claims the ‘rotten egg’ smell emanating from Jameson Road is not a health problem.

But locals have reached their breaking point. Last week they marched through the streets of the seaside town demanding the plant’s closure.

They say the lingering odor in Fleetwood is nearly omnipresent, seeping through the walls of homes, many of which were built decades ago.

Australian-born Ms Rowe, who moved to the north-west during the pandemic, attributes her asthma and COPD to the smell. Her Staffordshire Bull Terrier Mollie passed away in late February at the age of 13, a series of events that she herself thought were no coincidence.

‘I have a new dog who is 14 months old now and I’m afraid to take him out in the morning when he’s doing really bad,’ she says.

‘Dogs’ sense of smell is much stronger than humans’. I had to put Mollie to sleep and I’m sure the smell helped her illness go away quicker.

‘Children in this town go to school feeling sick, crying, with bleeding noses. I never had asthma or COPD until this started two years ago and now I have been diagnosed.

‘A lot of older people come here to retire, to live by the sea, their lives are over. Wyre Borough Council has told us to keep our windows and doors closed. ‘We have the right to use our gardens.’

Another resident, Richard Falcon, 54, told the Daily Mail last month that he had been hospitalized twice due to gases emanating from the area.

Residents living in villages like Bispham and Thornton-Cleveleys, about five miles away, even reported the smell permeating their streets.

EA said complaints reached an all-time high of over 4,000 last month, putting pressure on the operator to install permanent caps to control the gas and keep odors in ‘as soon as possible’.

But North Blackpool and Fleetwood MP Lorraine Beavers fears the town could suffer a ‘terrible’ summer for the third consecutive year because of the landfill.

Hundreds of residents took to the streets of the northwestern town last week – some wearing gas masks – to demand the plant be shut down

A sign held by an angry resident read ‘Stop the smell’

Mollie, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, passed away at the age of 13 in late February, following a series of events that her owner, Allison Rowe, thought may have been caused by the dump.

He also warned that Fleetwood’s economy could take a hit as tourism continues to decline.

He said: ‘We are a holiday town. People move to our area because they want to breathe clean air. If I went on holiday and had to endure that smell, I wouldn’t be able to come back.

‘The smell drives people away and businesses suffer. These businesses employ the local population, they are huge.

‘We have many children suffering from nosebleeds and headaches. This wasn’t happening before the landfill.

‘That’s why we’re trying so hard to close this place down. We have the right to breathe clean air and it is our duty. We want it to be closed and never opened again. It’s been hell since the day it opened.

‘I had a case involving a woman from a working-class background. He had to move out of Fleetwood because he couldn’t breathe there. This broke his heart; He loved Fleetwood. Transwaste doesn’t care and they are here to make money. We want you to come out now; Go back to Hull and leave us alone.’

Former doctor Barbara Neil, 61, who lives a few kilometers away, said the town had been ‘living under a dark, stinking cloud for two years’.

He is part of the Close Jameson Road Landfill action group in Fleetwood, one of two racing to end the town’s squalor. The other is Action Against Jameson Road, led by Ms Rowe.

Ms Neil said: ‘I was in a meeting with a guy from EA earlier this year and he said to me: ‘We’ve had six days in a row without odor this year.’ Wow damn!

‘I got into this job (managing the action group) because of my background as a doctor. I went and asked people about their symptoms and was horrified.

‘Headaches, breathing problems, nosebleeds, people with babies are afraid to go out. There was a man whose lungs were damaged and he couldn’t breathe. “This is shocking.”

The Environment Agency told the Daily Mail that they had sent an enforcement notice to site operators asking them to close the landfill to reduce the risk of odors spreading.

He added that Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates are in the process of importing paving materials such as soil and clay to alleviate the odor.

The following statements were made in the statement: ‘Society should not have to tolerate odors that affect its environment.

‘We have forced the operator to close areas of the site where waste has recently been deposited to reduce the odor and we are pressing them to install permanent covers as soon as possible to prevent future emissions.

‘Environment Agency officers are actively monitoring the situation and if we see no improvement we will not hesitate to impose further enforcement.’

Transwaste’s owners, Mercury Group, said last month that the odors were part of a section of the area known as Cell 6 that had ‘reached its final reaches and must be permanently closed’.

The company, which has a contract until the end of 2027, said: ‘Transwaste submitted a proposal for permanent containment to the Environment Agency in early December 2025 and is awaiting approval. We’ve been in talks with EA this week and hope that if given approval we can start permanent capping on Monday.

‘Independent EA air quality monitoring shows air quality in the area is within World Health Organisation’s safety limits.’

A spokesperson for Wyre Borough Council said: ‘We fully understand how distressing this situation is for residents and we take their concerns very seriously.

‘We work closely with the community to listen to the community’s experiences and gather evidence to support a potential legal distress case.

‘We understand that citizens want to keep the windows open, especially in hot weather.

‘To help build a robust body of evidence that meets the legal standards required to be presented in court, we continue to encourage residents to record incidents of unpleasant odors experienced on their property by completing daily forms and agreeing to officer verification visits for at least seven consecutive days; Both of these remain important parts of the process within the legislative powers we have.’