What's that smell? Landfill, drains and sewage explained

Occasional outdoor smells around the estate usually have one of three sources — and a persistent smell inside your house is a different problem worth reporting.

The former Biffa landfill (Skelton Grange)

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The neighbouring Biffa site stopped taking household waste around 2018, but it has been permitted since 2015 to process up to 50,000 tonnes of contaminated soil a year. Smells come and go with ground disturbance — stronger when soil is being worked, and weather-dependent. Landfill gas (methane) from the old tip is collected and burned to generate electricity rather than vented.

Biffa don’t work Sundays, which is why long-term residents joke about “odourless Sundays” — a useful clue: if the smell disappears on Sundays, it’s probably the Biffa site.

Other outdoor sources

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• The pumping station on the bridleway.
• Knostrop sewage treatment works (towards Cross Green) on hot or windy days.

A sulphur / rotten-egg smell inside the house

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This is not normal and shouldn’t be lived with. In several homes (reported on the Avant side) the cause was a missing or faulty air admittance valve (AAV) on an internal soil stack — check boxed-in pipework and the loft — or a drainage defect. Report it to your developer’s customer care as a defect: it’s their responsibility to fix, and they have sent drainage and stack teams out for exactly this.

If you ever smell gas, that’s different — call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999 immediately.