Composting

composting works under construction

The old Pendlebury Bait maggot farm, now the TEG composting works, has been a problem for local residents, and TMRT for many years.  The whole site falls within the boundary of the Common Land, and much of it is in serious need of restoration.  Because restoration of the area was mentioned, the Trust was prepared to give conditional support to a plan to replace the maggot farm with a composting plant on the site.

After a long local campaign against the composting plant, planning permission was eventually granted by CMBC in August 2005.  Since then, the original owners have sold the project to TEG.  The semi-derelict brick buildings of the old maggot farm have been demolished, and  replaced by large industrial sheds, with some landscaping and planting started around the buildings. Not pretty, but an improvement of sorts.

However, we understand there have been problems with the compost plant’s waste air bio-filtration system. Re-designing has been necessary, but neither the process nor its final product is odourless as we were originally told would be the case. Complaints have been made by local people, but as we write (Jan 2008), it appears the Environment Agency and Environmental Health can find nothing wrong on their site visits.

Smells unlike any ordinary compost have been experienced by local residents and, even at night when the plant is closed, people in passing cars are reporting unpleasant smells coming from the buildings. This is very disappointing. We had been convinced that the problems of smell associated with the old maggot farm would be a thing of the past – that this new technology would be clean as well as green.
 
In Autumn 2007 the company, TEG, put in a planning application to spread 2500 tonnes of this smelly, very rough compost in Clough Head Quarry, behind and to the side of the composting plant. This was claimed to be a means to achieve quarry and moorland restoration.

TMRT was not consulted, and we would not have recommended use of this compost in this way. We have agreed in the past with TEG that there is an urgent need for restoration and stabilisation of the quarry which is being badly eroded. This erosion is due partly to extensive earthworks that took place during the construction of the composting plant and we feel the company should take responsibility for that.

Far from supporting this application, the Trust took the decision that it would object to it.  Until the compost is a satisfactory product, properly analysed, with known acidity levels, and   recommended spreading rates, we wouldn’t know what was being spread on the Common Land within a short distance from people’s homes.

Members of TMRT attended an Open Day at the composting plant in November 2007. Concerns reported back included:

• There is no way to isolate the composting areas or the delivery section from the outside, so any odours are bound to escape.
• Are there adequate procedures in place to prevent contamination if degrading food waste is being received?
• The finished compost is very rough, including large pieces of tree waste.  It is more like an extremely coarse bark mulch – not attractive or useful as a growth medium for plants.
• Why isn’t the plant set up to produce a good marketable product that could be sold to local people, and be used in local parks?

Thanks to objections from local residents and TMRT members, TEG’s application was withdrawn in December 2007.  It is such a shame that TEG tried to use compost in a way that was unacceptable to local people.  What is needed is a scheme that is properly thought through, because the old Clough Head Quarry is still in need of restoration.