PLANS to extend a landfill site near Kingsteignton have horrified residents who argue they have ‘suffered long enough’.

A decision has yet to be made into the proposals by Valencia waste management company which were made to Devon County Council last year. 

Kingsteignton Town Council and Hennock Parish Council have objected to the expansion while at least 16 public objections have been lodged. 

Among them, one resident said: ‘Surely the residents of Kingsteignton, Chudleigh Knighton, Chudleigh, Heathfield and the surrounding areas have suffered long enough with the nauseating nuisance of the Heathfield Landfill Site.’

She added that finding out the operators wanted to extend the site and divert a public Right of Way was ‘incredulous’. 

Valenica says it intends to extend the life of the Heathfield landfill site for non-hazardous residual waste by an additional 12 years until 2036 with a further two years for its restoration which takes the plans to 2038. 

It claims the benefits of continuing to landfill at Heathfield will meet waste strategy requirements, provide local jobs and use the existing site.

The company’s planning statement concludes: ‘It is considered that the continuation of landfilling at Heathfield is acceptable and any potential impacts can be adequately mitigated and controlled through planning conditions and through the site monitoring process.’

Objectors highlight the extra lorries to bring in unsorted refuse from Cornwall and described the view of the site, seen from the A380 dual carriageway from Penn Inn to the Eagle Farm junction as a ‘blot on the landscape’.

It was suggested it was now time to close the site as had originally been intended. 

And that Valencia would be making further financial gain from the ‘misery’ of local residents. 

Hennock parish councillors say they object to the application in the ‘strongest terms’ due to concerns for the ‘health, wellbeing and safety of our community’. 

The parish council says it has received complaints from residents about the odour and have highlighted the Environment Agency’s response to the application which points to ‘the site’s potential to cause odour nuisance to areas much further than the receptors identified in the planning application’.

The EA says it too has received recent complaints from residents in Chudleigh Knighton and Kingsteignton and its officers confirmed that the landfill site has been the source.

The parish council also pointed to a response online to the application which says the landfill is already causing a ‘potent smell of rotting flesh preventing many residents, including myself, from enjoying their gardens making us feel physically sick’. 

The resident said: ‘I want to enjoy my garden and be able to open all my windows and doors without physically gagging from the stench.’

The application is for a ‘vertical and lateral’ extension of the existing non-hazardous landfill, restoration of site and continued gas utilisation to extend the existing landfill capacity and landfill operations.

Kingsteignton Town Council Councillors have objected to further development of the site on the grounds of overdevelopment and air pollution concerns. 

Its response to the application says: ‘Councils have a duty of care to residents and wish to highlight the lack of air quality monitoring points currently active within the town’s boundaries. 

‘The extra development is now for commercial gain and is detrimental to the visual aesthetics of the area as well as being ecologically damaging.’