Landfill summer worries

A BUSINESS owner has spoken of his experience operating a popular border restaurant and accommodation less than a mile away from a landfill ‘mountain’ that keeps on getting bigger and continues to emit an ‘awful’ odour.

Roger Boardman has been at the Metal Bridge Inn with his family for the last 14 years, having previously run the Queensberry in Annan.

It’s situated next to the River Esk, between Gretna and Carlisle, and less than a mile north of Hespin Wood landfill site.

At the moment business at the inn continues as normal, although the landfill is often the main topic of conversation with customers.

And there are worries that things could become worse in the summer months.

Roger says the horrendous smell, which readers of this paper will have noticed when passing the landfill, is not always noticeable at the Metal Bridge, due to wind direction.

But he does have concerns about the actual size of the landfill and the number of lorries delivering waste daily. Arriving from both directions, via the service road, they are believed to be bringing waste from all over the country.

Roger said: “It’s a bit of a disaster, the whole thing.

“We knew there was a tip here but it was just for local waste. New owners took over last year, and since then it’s just been wagon after wagon, they’re even coming from Scotland.

“Every county should be responsible for their own waste.

“It (the landfill) is ginormous.

“I feel sorry for the people who live right next to it. Even if the smell disappears, that mountain is going to keep getting bigger.”

Roger added that Cumbria was supposed to be a tourist destination; not a place for waste to be dumped from all over.

He added: “We have had a couple of comments from the motorhomes.

“I think they are trying to dump as much as they can until it gets shut down.

“The problem is you don’t know what’s going to happen in the summer.

“Everybody who comes in here, that’s all they ever talk about now.

“The smell is awful, but also the the size of it and what else is happening as well.

“You can just about see it from our place. There’s pictures people have taken a year ago and again recently - and it’s getting bigger. They have been taking rubbish off the top and making it wider.” The Environment Agency revealed 370 reports have been made so far this month.

Roger said: “If you go on to our Facebook page there’s a link on there. If you can smell it and have got feelings about it – then report it. That’s actually come from the Environment Agency. “The people you report it to are really nice. They log your email address and what you say to them.

“We are still really, really busy, but we don’t know what it will be like in the summer.”

Closer to Gretna, and just over the border, is Dougie Armstrong, who runs an AirBnB and is concerned the smell may start to drift over on a more regular basis.

He said: “At the moment I’ve only noticed it a couple of times at home, but as I work in and around Carlisle, and travel past Hespin Wood daily, I have noticed how unacceptable it’s become.”

Springfield and Gretna Green and Gretna and Rigg community councils have both made authorities aware of their concerns.