Public Health Wales has advised Pembrokeshire residents assailed by strong smells coming from a local landfill site to keep their doors and windows closed and to seek medical help if needed as emissions from the site ‘may be harmful to health’.

Locals, some living up to four miles away from Withhedge Landfill site, say that since October, their lives have been blighted by unpleasant odours from the landfill.

The smell is so bad that people are unable to open their windows or send their children outside to play.

“I have practically retched when I have let the dogs out,” said Sue Lewis who lives in nearby Spittal. “You can’t open the windows.”

Anna Jackson, who also lives four miles from the site described suffering from itchy watery eyes when the smell is strong.

“My children won’t go out and pay because they can’t stand the smell,” she said. “Recently they asked for Covid masks do they could go out and play.”

The site is now owned by Cardiff based company RML which has now been given until April by Natural Resources Wales to solve the problem.

In the meantime the Stop the Stink group is keen to get Public Health Wales involved in its campaign. It is concerned that suspected toxins in the air from the site are causing all manner of health problems including headaches, nausea, sore eyes, nose and throat as well as increased anxiety levels.

The group is also concerned by the findings of an NRW waste audit at Withyhedge carried out in November last year.

This revealed that the site is permitted to accept 150,000 tonnes of waste a year but had received 44,000 tonnes more waste than it was permitted to.

It had also accepted waste not included in its permit including health care waste and ash from power stations.

The photos sent by Stop the Stink were taken in 2022, before the current owners operated the site. But the group says that the images show that the site has a history of accepting non-compliant waste.

“In our eyes public health should be at the forefront of working with us to address this,” said Stop the Stink’s Colin Barnett.

“How can anyone in public health not recognise that the toxic air we are constantly breathing represents a public health issue?”

Dr Giri Shankar, Director of Health Protection for Public Health Wales, said: “We recognise that local people are under strain and are very concerned about the impacts of odours around the Withyhedge landfill site, and our thoughts are with affected residents.”

He said Public Health Wales was not the lead agency for matters like this but was working very closely with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to make sure the situation is improved quickly to reduce the impact on local people.

“We have met with NRW and the local authority and are really eager to see an urgent solution to this issue,” he said. “We have also recommended that the site is capped as soon as possible so that the odours are stopped.”

He added that Public Health Wales has called for monitoring at the site which would provide  important information needed to conduct a full assessment of any potential health impacts on the local community.

“Our current advice to local residents is that odours and emissions from this site may be harmful to health, and that they should keep doors and windows closed when the smells are present and seek medical advice if necessary,” said Dr Shankar.

“We hope this situation can be quickly improved.”

Stop the Stink is holding a public meeting this evening, Monday, February 26, at 7pm at Crundale Village Hall. Public Health Wales has said that it will be attending.