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Resident Meriel Harris, ex-cllr David Rogers, Norton cllr Heather Rogers, the Conservative party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Stourbridge - Margot James, resident Mandy Compton and Norton cllr Angus Adams at the site.

DETERMINED Norton campaigners are celebrating victory after winning their hard-fought battle to shut down a green waste recycling site that has plagued their doorsteps.

The Norton and Iverley Action Group had been battling for more than three years to get the plug pulled on the Simpro Ltd site at Iverley Park Farm, which they blamed for repeated noise nuisance, "horrific" odours - and health problems such as asthma and respiratory problems through inhaling fungal spores released by composting waste.

And after raising thousands of pounds to employ top legal advisers and putting together a meticulous research file, their efforts have been rewarded and the Environment Agency has refused to renew Simpro's agreement to operate.

EA spokeswoman Lyn Fraley told the News: "Their operations cannot be controlled in a manner that would prevent nuisance at all times and we believe the operation has a risk of harm to human health."

Campaigner Jim Cadman said: "It's a triumph for the endeavors of the people involved in the Norton and Iverley Action Group, who - in spite of all the setbacks - have kept at it and saved the day and the health of so many nearby residents."

Norton councillors Angus Adams, Mike Attwood and Heather Rogers and former cllr David Rogers said they were delighted at the result.

Cllr Heather Rogers said: "The action group worked really hard. The stench was obnoxious to thousands of people in the area and members of the tennis club were trying to play outside and it made them feel sick."

Resident Meriel Harris, of Sandy Road, said: "It's been ghastly. We're all delighted that at last someone seems to have seen reason."

Childminder Mandy Compton, of Sugar Loaf Lane, said: "It was really bad. I was complaining two or three times a day. The smell was horrific."

Campaigner Hugh Digger, the action group's technical officer and one of the driving forces behind the campaign, told the News: "Bio-aerosols given off from the site caused all sorts of problems. A number of people had fungal spores in their lungs."

Simpro had been operating under an exemption from a waste management licence, granted by the Environment Agency in August 2004, because the site was deemed small scale.

But agency officers discovered it was processing more compost than allowed, so the exemption was withdrawn and the site shut down.

The Wolverhampton based recycling company, however, put in a new application to continue operating - but the Environment Agency turned it down.

No-one from Simpro wanted to comment.

12:53pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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