Greencore
Greencore Sub-Committee
The aim of LRS’s Greencore Sub-committee is to work with Greencore and the Environment Agency (EA) to manage, down to zero, the nuisance to Longbarn residents resulting from the unpleasant smells emanating from the Greencore’s food processing plant on Grosvenor Grange.
The plant’s proximity to the estate has always been a source of issues for Longbarn residents. The essence of the problem is strong odour emissions at any time of the day or night due the 24 hour operation of the site. The prevailing winds in this area mean that some parts of the estate are immune to the problem but others suffer greatly. Even the staunchest fans of garlic and onions would find it nauseous.
This has been a problem for a long time, well before Greencore took over the plant.
In the early days of Hazelwood Foods and Food Enterprises, as the business expanded the Local Authority dealt with the many problems relating to noise, odour problems and correspondence exists dating back to March 1997.
In more recent times, Greencore Foods took over the operation and the Environment Agency became responsible for overseeing the licensing of the production. However, the problems continued. Locally, residents continued to be very frustrated. In the early days of the formation of the LRA, when the same issue came up again and again, it was decided to form a sub-group, chaired by David Pearson, to focus on the shared problem. Meetings were arrange between Greencore local management, EA and LRA to discuss the odour emissions problem and how it affected local people.
Lines of communication between all parties were agreed and diaries of when residents noticed the smells were kept and provided to the EA and Greencore. These diaries have been kept from October 2012 onwards.
Greencore, to their credit, have not dismissed or ignored the problem in any way. They have done what they could within the constraints of the plant that they are operating. They have pointed out that to remove the smell issue, they would have to make significant investment in changes to their plant. Greencore’s local management have not ducked this issue.
Meetings have been on-going and regular and, as a result, the LRA is being kept “in the loop” in respect of the £30 million currently being invested by Greencore in the site (see progress reports below):-
Greencore Project Update Dec 2016
There are significant changes planned for the site which will address the issue of noise from vehicles serving the site as well as the smells. Consequently, for a time, Greencore’s Longbarn neighbours will probably experience noise associated with the construction work. This should be purely temporary and hopefully will be worth putting up with in the long run.
As a result of Greencore’s investment in the site, we are promised that, amongst other things, odour issues will be a thing of the past for people living in Longbarn. But, let’s not be complacent. We continue to ask (nay implore) any residents detecting odours or other issues, to contact the Factory on 01925 825196 or the EA (incident hotline) on 0800 807060 and to comment on the LRA website.
As a result of the “Good Neighbour” relationship created between our organisations, Greencore are not only one of our website sponsors, but have provided food, people and equipment to support many of LRA’s events e.g. the Fireworks Night Party and the Community Fun Day.
