A mum and her five-year-old boy have won a legal case against the Environment Agency over a Staffordshire landfill site accused of emitting noxious gases that risk shortening her son's life.
Rebecca Currie, 41, lives around 400 metres away from Walleys Quarry in Silverdale, Newcastle-under-Lyme, which she claims emits such horrific fumes her family have suffered with nose bleeds.
She previously said she was woken by her son Mathew coughing every night, sometimes until he vomited.
Rebecca today won a "David and Goliath" legal case against the Environment Agency (EA) which her lawyers argued there was a "public health emergency" in the vicinity of the quarry over the emission of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) which affect "hundreds and probably thousands of local people".
At a hearing in August, the High Court in London heard that Mathew was a vulnerable child, born prematurely at 26 weeks with a chronic lung disease and needed oxygen support for 19 months.
His doctor told the court that as the H2S emissions were preventing his recovery and lung development, he was at risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the future which would dramatically reduce his life expectancy.
On Thursday, Mr Justice Fordham made a declaration that the EA "must implement" Public Health England's advice to reduce concentrations of hydrogen sulphide in the local area to one part per billion, less than an eighth of the level that can be smelled, by January 2022.
He said: "Based on all the evidence, about Mathew, and about the emissions, and about the implications of the emissions for Mathew, I am satisfied that there is a direct effect on Mathew's home, family life and private life from adverse effects of severe environmental pollution."
In her evidence, Mathew's mother Rebecca Currie described fumes from the site as "a stomach-wrenching smell like rotten eggs", as other residents said they suffered headaches and nosebleeds which they attributed to the smell from the quarry.
Ms Currie, who lives approximately 400 metres away from the landfill, previously said she would have been forced to move away from her home with her son if the legal action failed.
The court previously heard the EA, which is monitoring the site's air-quality levels, had taken "very substantial steps" at the landfill site and "continues to keep matters under review".
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Public Health England's position is that "currently any risk to long-term health is likely to be small, but a risk cannot completely be excluded if exposure were to continue at current levels", the court heard.
The judge said: "It will require pressing and ongoing action which will, in my judgment, make a very real difference so far as the air which Mathew, and his community, breathes is concerned."
He added: "I accept it is not necessary, nor is it appropriate, for this court to say that there is a current breach by the EA of its legal obligations.
"I have made clear that I am not satisfied, on the evidence, that the EA has yet addressed its legal duties in the way that it must.
"But there is an obvious and pressing public interest imperative that it must do so, as a matter of urgency.
"It is well able to do so."
Mathew's solicitor Rebekah Carrier said they were "delighted" with the decision after the ruling.
She said: "This is truly a 'David and Goliath' case where a mother has faced up to the Government agency which is supposed to protect public health and yet has failed so badly to do so."
Mathew and his mum are not to only ones to have complained about the smell and fumes coming off the site, with one mum saying she and her family have been "driven to despair" over the stench.
Suzi Stringer, 40, lives next to Walleys Quarry where she says she can see the mounds of rubbish from her daughter's bedroom window.
She and husband Dan moved to the area in 2016 and had hoped to sell and move, but Dan sadly lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Because of the smell the family suffer from frequent headaches, Suzi said.
Suzi told StaffordshireLive: "On a normal day there is a faint odour like you have left your bin open. But on a bad day, when the wind is blowing from there and there is cold air, it makes you physically wretch and we get really bad headaches.
"When people make deliveries they say 'what the hell is that smell outside your house?'
"It smells like faeces, rotting flesh, out-of-date meat, and a used bag of nappies. It’s an eggy smell.
"There’s a certain smell we get every now and again which is a really acrid chemical smell that burns the back of your throat and makes your eyes sting."
The overwhelming pong has encroached on almost every facet of the family's life, even
"On the day my daughter was born we had one of the worst weekends of stench. I bought my daughter home to a house that smelt of rotten eggs and faeces," she said.
"I was driven to despair with the smell as my stepdaughter and my baby used to cough every night.
"On numerous occasions I’ve packed up my family into the car in the early hours to escape the smell.
"We even tried to sell our house, but with my husband losing his job during the pandemic we were left in an impossible situation."
Suzi is so desperate to have some respite from the smell that she splurged £2,000 on an air purification system by by Clenzair - the same brand used by the White House.
