Agenda item

The report attached to the agenda detailed complaints made since the last meeting and the results of any investigations.

The following abbreviations were noted:

LF – large flakt tower

SF – small flakt tower

These, together with the JLT tower, are the three chemical scrubbers.

A complaints summary was circulated (attached), which detailed comparisons for each quarter back to 2002.  A total of 34 complaints had been received in 2015 to date which was at the lowest level since 2002.  There is always a variation between years, but this is a larger than normal reduction in complaints. It was considered that this was partly due to operational activities within the factory.

The summary of the number of days where multiple complaints had been received was noted.  Four complaints were made on 6 July.  The factory was not processing at this time and one of the chemical scrubbers was running.  However, on a windy day it is harder to maintain negative pressure on the scrubbers and on this occasion another tower was switched on to assist with this.

On 28 September, three raw material deliveries had arrived at the same time, and a raw material odour had been identified.  This was an unusual combination of events, and happens very rarely.  A great deal of planning is put into organising deliveries, but at times is out of the factory’s control due to traffic, driver breaks etc.  At times, the factory receives raw material which they cannot process as they are already shut down. In such instances, the load can be stored within the raw material room (from which air is extracted to the JLT tower). In exceptional circumstances, arrangements can be made to move raw material to the factory’s sister plant at Widnes.

The pH in the scrubbers is set to a particular level, and the scrubber regulates itself to maintain these optimum conditions whether the factory is running or not. Less chemical is needed to maintain the pH set points when the factory is shut down and the load on the tower is lower.

Nick Parsons reported on some recent activities that may also have led to a decrease in complaints:

·         The small and large flakt odour abatement towers have been fitted with dampers to isolate air flows at shutdown times.  An assessment identified that when the factory was shut down the towers were acting as chimneys to draw a small flow of untreated air out of the factory. The dampers have prevented this.

·         The small flakt fan has been fitted with a Variable Speed Drive to provide fan speed control.

·         The No. 2 boiler has been fitted with a new gas register and fuel/air control unit which has provided improved boiler reliability.

·         A building pressure differential unit has been fitted.

·         A new DAF primary effluent treatment plant has been installed at ground level.

·         A new fast acting roller door has been fitted to the warehouse entrance to the plant.

Nick also added that the factory had raised production by 15% through their raw handling system from 13.5 tonnes per hour to 15 tonnes per hour.  This enables them to get the material through the process quicker and therefore less degradation of materials occurs.  The factory is now running predominantly during the night shift. The factory only operates during the daytime when raw material tonnage is sufficient.

The definitions of different categories of materials were summarised:

·         CAT 1 - High risk. Material for destruction, not for human or animal consumption.

·         CAT 2 – Still high risk material which requires destruction. However, there are some exceptions where specific processes can allow products to become organic fertilisers. The markets do not allow for any CAT 2 plants in the UK, so most CAT 2 defaults to CAT 1.

·         CAT 3 - Allowed for use in production of animal feed stocks. Therefore this material does go back into the food chain.

Reference was made to the noise complaints.  It was noted that one recent complaint related to a boiler which was creating a noise under certain process conditions.  This had now been fixed.  Complaints generated from Water Lane tended to be vehicle complaints.

Environmental Health officers do attempt to carry out a visit downwind of the site once a week to identify any possible odours (irrespective of any complaints received).

Nick Parsons asked the residents’ representatives if they had received any feedback from residents.  Nigel Fitzhugh reported a resident of St Bernards Close had asked for more action, but he had advised that the factory was complying with all regulations and there was little more that could be done.