New location to be considered for Luton waste depot after nearby homes 'plagued' by flies, rats and smell

A group affected by the depot’s activity petitioned the local authority calling for more to be done to tackle these issues. Kingsway Residents’ Association submitted a 148-signature petition to LBC in November.

Members of the council’s petitions and representations board concluded the lives of neighbouring residents to the Kingsway depot “are detrimentally affected by the activities on the site”, according to a report to the executive.

“These include odours from the waste transfer station, fly and rat infestations and traffic congestion,” said the report. “This depot is located predominantly in a residential area.”

Portfolio holder for regeneration and inclusive growth and Labour High Town councillor James Taylor explained: “The residents petitioned the council about their concerns that flies have been causing a nuisance around their area, and that the source was from the Kingsway depot.

“The officers had a look and agreed there were some issues which would involve considering some practices and would they’d need to do to make changes.

“There was also a request that in the long-term we potentially look at relocating the depot. Many of us can agree it’s probably not ideally located in the middle of a residential area.

“But we realise it’s going to take plenty of work to achieve that. We agreed the recommendations put forward by the petitions and representations board and we’re happy to consider them for the longer term.”

Liberal Democrat Stopsley councillor David Wynn said: “I didn’t see any reference in the report to the local residents being given any form of emergency hotline number. I would have thought that would be helpful for them.”

Deputy council leader and Labour Beech Hill councillor Javed Hussain replied: “They agreed to have a working group with the residents to enable regular contact between them, but that’s separate.

“This working group will evolve that number because there are obviously a number of different departments involved. We said there would be a report back to policy group on this to say what sites we’ve looked at and what work has been done.”

Council leader and Labour Lewsey councillor Hazel Simmons confirmed the subject “will come back”, adding: “There’s probably plenty of work to be done before it can go anywhere to be honest.”

Labour Farley councillor Javeria Hussain welcomed the report, and agreed the hotline would be “particularly helpful”, describing it as: “important for residents impacted in the immediate vicinity”.

The executive agreed a recommendation from the petitions board that it begins to consider “possible long-term solutions to relocate the depot away from residential areas to a more suitable site and for the repurposing of the land”.