Wrexham Council Praises Enovert for Reduction in Odour Complaints

A landfill site at the centre of a long-running nuisance odour dispute has been praised by Wrexham Councillors after significantly reducing complaints.
Enovert, which runs the Hafod Landfill site bordering Ruabon and Johnstown, submitted its latest report to Wrexham County Borough Council detailing odour complaints and monitoring data from the site.
The company is facing legal action from residents over the smells coming from the site, which have blighted the community for 19 years, but it received praise from members of Wrexham’s Homes and Environment Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday for efforts over the past 17 months to get emissions under control.
But complaints about nuisance odour have fallen from 548 in 2025 – with a peak in January that year of 260 – to 294 so far this year – again peaking in January with 174. Overall the trending number of complaints raised by the public is down.
While air quality emissions have improved according to the report, leachate levels – the contaminated water that runs off from the site, remains higher than permitted.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which enforces Enovert’s Environmental Permit, said that new wells are being drilled to collect more leachate and it was confident that the Hafod site would get back within permitted levels.
Addressing the committee James Hladkij, Enovert’s Group Environmental Manager, said: “We had a massive spike in air quality complaints in January 2025.
“As the year went on, odour complaints declined. Unfortunately, they’re still well above the levels that we want and expect.
“In January 2026 again we saw a peak and complaint numbers have slowly reduced.
“For 98% of the time the two off-site community pods measured below the effective detection limit of eight parts per billion of Hydrogen Sulphide, which is the annoyance level.
“Around 96% of the time, the pods were well below that on-site too. So that gives you an indication of the levels we’re receiving.
“Every complaint Enovert receives is investigated where possible and all are logged on our internal systems. We don’t want to damage the community around Hafod.
“We’ve provided all the data and reports to Public Health Wales, who came back and said that they weren’t concerned at the current levels. They did say if there was an escalation in levels they would want to know about it and investigate.”
Rhys Ellie, NRW’s Industry and Waste Regulation Team Leader, added that its monitoring of the site also showed that leachate was now its main focus.
“Since the start of January, we did 48 off-site odour monitoring assessments,” he said. “These determined that landfill gas odours are more prevalent around New Hall Road and the site entrance.
“The main headline is concentrating on leachate management and infrastructure. We will continue to monitor progress with a key objective of reducing leachate levels to within current permitted limits.”
Cllr Paul Pemberton, who last year criticised Enovert saying ‘sort it out or shut it’ in reference to Hafod, admitted improvements had been made.
“It’s come on leaps and bounds,” he said. “I have Just one question, do you think the reduction in complaints is caused because complainants felt they were being ignored or feel it’s not worth complaining going forward?
“It can take a long time for them to restore their faith in the system.”
Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Strategic Planning and Public Protection  said the drop in complaints matched the data on falling odour emissions.
“When you look at the data the odour, which is the source of most of the complaints in the residential areas, is virtually down to zero level and has resulted in zero complaints.
“The data behind the complaint confirms that the smells are effectively disappearing and therefore the source of the complaints has disappeared.”
Cllr John Phillips agreed that the situation in the areas now much better than in January 2025.
“From where we were 18 months ago to where we are today, it’s improved,” he said. “I’d like to pass my thanks on to everyone at Enovert and NRW.
“It’s about keeping that momentum going, continuing to be a good neighbour. I think that is important. I don’t live in Johnstown, but I’m in Johnstown virtually every day and in all honesty, from a personal point of view, I’ve seen a difference.” ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

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