UK’s Environment Agency faces legal fight over landfill fumes

Threat to health of five-year-old triggers proceedings over fumes from Walleys Quarry landfill near Newcastle-under-Lyme

A five-year-old boy from Staffordshire has begun legal action against the Environment Agency over fumes from a landfill site that a medical expert has said is shortening his life expectancy.

Campaigners said a letter to begin legal proceedings had been sent on behalf of Mathew Richards, who was born prematurely and has significant respiratory health problems that have been worsened by fumes from a landfill site near his home in Silverdale, near Newcastle-under-Lyme.