A mother who claims a Staffordshire landfill site is emitting noxious gases that risk shortening her son’s life has said she will take her legal fight against the environmental regulator to the European Court of Human Rights
Rebecca Currie, who lives near Walleys Quarry in Silverdale, Newcastle-under-Lyme brought legal action against the Environment Agency on behalf of five-year-old son Mathew Richards due to concerns over his health.
Lawyers representing Mathew told the High Court in August that there is a “public health emergency” in the vicinity of the quarry, arguing that hydrogen sulphide emissions are affecting “hundreds and probably thousands of local people”.
The court heard Mathew is a vulnerable child, born prematurely at 26 weeks with a chronic lung disease, and he needed oxygen support for 19 months.
In September, Mr Justice Fordham made a declaration that the Environment Agency (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.
But, following a challenge by the Environment Agency, the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in December and concluded the declaration “was neither justified nor necessary as there was no actual or proposed unlawfulness which called for a remedy”.
Ms Currie asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal against that decision, but the court refused permission on Tuesday, saying the case does not raise an arguable point of law.
In a statement on Thursday, Ms Currie said: “I feel that Mathew has been completely let down, first of all by the Environment Agency who are meant to protect us from dangers like poisoned air, and now by the legal system.
“Despite the High Court recognising the seriousness of this situation and telling the Environment Agency to do more to stop the scandal of a private company being able to pollute the air that we breathe, we are now back where we started.
“I am determined not to give up. The stink in our village continues and Mathew continues to be poorly.
“Seeing my child struggle to breathe, and blood pouring from his nose, I know every parent will understand that I have to continue to do all I can.
“This now means asking the European Court of Human Rights to step up where our own courts have failed.”
Rebekah Carrier, of law firm Hopkin Murray Beskine, said: “The Supreme Court has missed the opportunity to clarify the correct approach to the regulation of environmental hazards.
“This is extremely disappointing for Mathew and his community, who seek to have the threat to Mathew’s life taken seriously.”
