“We have been inundated with flies, rats, smell, noise. It’s just been horrendous,” says Mandy Royle, who lives in the closest home to the UK’s biggest waste incinerator at Runcorn in Cheshire.
The facility generates electricity from burning nearly a million tonnes of household rubbish every year – but much of that waste doesn’t come from Ms Royle’s local area. Like many incinerators, deliveries come from hundreds of miles away.
BBC analysis suggests the burden of the UK’s waste is disproportionately falling on deprived areas such as Runcorn, which are 10 times more likely to have an energy-from-waste incinerator in their midst than in the wealthiest areas.
Many families nearby shared a £1m settlement after 180 of them launched a legal action over the pollution and disturbances from the Runcorn incinerator, the BBC can reveal.
But Ms Royle was one of a handful of people who did not sign the agreement, allowing her to speak out about life in the shadow of one of the UK’s giant waste plants.
“I’m just stuck in this little corner with a big monster staring at me and throwing what it does over me,” she says.
The others who took the cash, worth about £4,500 per family after legal costs, had to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
“Well, I think they’re being unfair in what they’re paying, and completely unfair in what they are doing,” says George Parker, who runs a local garage and also refused to sign the deal.
“It’s a million-pound hush fund and a gagging order. That’s why they’re doing it, they’re keeping everybody quiet.”
Viridor, which runs the Runcorn plant, said it would not
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