Stench from historic Yorkshire business is 'affecting residents' mental health'

On Wednesday (Feb 21), bosses from the Waddingtons rendering plant, off Hammerton Street, appeared before councillors and members of the public to answer questions about the plant and the smells that have long been linked to the business.

During a five and a half hour meeting, members from Bradford Council’s health and environment scrutiny committees also heard from residents and businesses who say the site and its odours have blighted their lives.

Waddingtons has been based in the city since the 1880s, and is one of just a handful of “animal byproducts processing facilities” in the country.

Animal products are transported to the site – on the edge of the city centre, from across the country, where they are recycled into energy and biofuels.

For years there have been complaints about the smells produced by the plant, and Bradford East MP Imran Hussain has called for Bradford Council to do more to put pressure on the company to reduce its odours.

At Wednesday’s meeting Jeff Lawrence, environmental health manager at the council, told members what happens at the plant, and what powers the Council has to control the smells.

He told members that the current rules for such facilities, set by Government, say, as long as companies could show they were implementing the “best available techniques” (BAT) to reduce odour, then they were complying with their permit.

He said the company had demonstrated that it had the right equipment to meet this BAT standard. He pointed out there has recently been a Government review into the standards such facilities have to meet that could put tougher controls on companies like Waddingtons to reduce smells.

He added: “It is frustrating that we don’t know the time scale for the review. It might be worth writing to the Secretary of State, especially with City of Culture coming up. It is a pivotal year for the District, and a pivotal year for the Government, as they granted us this status.”

He added: “I understand the frustrations of the community, but we are committed to ensuring Waddingtons are complying with their obligations. But you have to recognise that we have to work within the existing framework.”

Alistair Collins, operations director at J G Pears Group, which has owned Waddingtons said the company employed 35 people on site, as well as 40 drivers.

He said sites like his were an “essential part” of the agricultural industry, as it disposed of the parts of animals not used in the food chain. It also allowed for the safe destruction of diseased animals.

Councillor Riaz Ahmed asked what would happen to the company if the Government did introduce more stringent controls on the industry.

Mr Collins said: “We would then invest in next level equipment. But the whole industry would have to be treated the same. We have to compete with other companies.”

Coun Ahmed said: “What is stopping you from making that investment now?”

Mr Collins replied: “If I had to charge more than other companies to bring materials in because our costs went up, we wouldn’t be in business – people would go somewhere else.”

Councillor Aneela Ahmed said: “Every single person here – they are here because this is affecting their lives. Their children can’t go out into their gardens because of the smells. You can’t open windows. It is impacting people’s mental health.

“If this was 1974 I could understand, but it is 2024 – things have moved on. Technology is amazing these days. I don’t want to be sat here in five years time having this same debate. Something has to be done.”

Coun Imran Khan said: “The way it has come across to me is that it is a commercial decision, to keep competitive you’re not going to invest in better technologies. You can do it but it would be expensive to do. People are struggling to go about their lives because of this god awful, gut wrenching smell. It is having a massive impact on the regeneration of the city. Every business in the city centre is affected by it.

“You’ve seen the strength of feeling on this – it can’t go on like this. If it were up to me I’d shut it down tonight if I could. And I’m sure if you could flip a switch and stop the smells you’d do that.”

One of the speakers was Amjam Saddiq, who runs the nearby Pasha restaurant. He said Youtubers and influencers regularly visit his business.

He said: “When it comes to Waddingtons, the smells not only effect our business, but all businesses around Leeds Road. It influences people’s mindset about Bradford, both nationally and internationally.

“We call ourselves City of Culture – do we want this to be the first smell visitors come across when they visit Bradford for the first time? How can an area close to where they are going to build a £2b station move forward when you have that appalling smell?

“You look on Tripadvisor and people comment about the smell. If you travel here and smell that smell you’ll never come back, and you’ll tell your family and friends not to come.”

Resident Sonny Ahmed said: “Is it going to be City of Culture, or City of stench?”

Numerous other members of the public spoke, and at one point Committee member Susan Crowe criticised the “personal attacks” from some that were being aimed at Council officers.

After five and a half hours of debate, the committee made several recommendations.

These included pushing for the Government to conclude its review of the industry as soon as possible and setting up a community action committee made up of residents, businesses and Councillors to document and discuss the number of odour incidents, how lomng they last and the impact on people’s lives.

Another recommendation was to commission an independent investigation – paid for by Waddingtons, to look at the impact of the plant on residents.

Members approved the recommendations.

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The Waddingtons plant on the edge of Bradford city centre is one of the oldest businesses in Bradford – having operated in the city in one form or another since 1882, but despite this many in the city are unaware of what happens in the factory.

At a meeting on Wednesday to discuss concerns about odours from the plans, committee members were given more detail about the operation of the business. The company is one of just eight animal byproduct rendering facilities in the UK – another being Omega Proteins outside of Thornton.

The processes carried out on the site dispose of dead animals, or animal parts such as bone, offal and hooves, to create biofuel and energy. The company was taken over by JG Pears in 2020.

A report to members of the Scrutiny Committee said the eight sites in the UK were vital for “controlling the risk of diseases passing from animals through to the general population.”

It added: “The rendering industry operates to ensure that diseased and unfit foods are prevented from entering our food chain.”

As well as accepting unused parts from the meat industry, the Bradford site also has a permit to accept dead animals in the form or roadkill and dead zoo animals.

During the meeting, company bosses told members that sites such as theirs are even used to dispose of the bodies of whales that wash onto UK shores.

The Committees also heard that the Government can commission sites like Waddingtons to dispose of animals during outbreaks of disease, such as avian influenza or swine flu.

Explaining how the site operates, the report says: “There are several stages in the ABP rendering treatment, including receipt of the material, crushing, cooking at high temperature and subsequent meal/tallow separation and storage. The process building and ABP processing areas are maintained under negative pressure to stop the escape of odours to the outside, even when doors are opened.

“Air is extracted from all processing areas and treated in either a thermal oxidiser or through two externally located hypochlorite-based scrubbers. The most odorous air is treated by high temperature incineration in the combustion chamber of the thermal oxidiser, however not all the air in the processing plant can be processed in the thermal oxidiser because of the large volumes of air in question. The remainder is processed by the two hypochlorite scrubbers.”

Steam produced by the process is then emitted via the plant’s large chimney.