An alleged new bad smell in west Belfast has caused a dispute between Sinn Féin and People Before Profit (PBP) councillors.
At the October meeting of the full Belfast City Council, elected representatives from the two parties clashed over the extent of a new malodour in the Collin area.
Four years ago councillors demanded Stormont fix a bad smell emanating from the Mullaghglass landfill site in the area.
The landfill has since closed, but residents are now complaining about an alleged new odour coming from a compost recycling site used by local government.
PBP councillor Michael Collins told the chamber at City Hall: “I want to raise a specific problem of air pollution in my constituency in the Collin area, where over the last number of weeks I have received a high volume of complaints from constituents.
“I have been working with a campaign group in the local area to fight against air pollution.
“There is a site in particular there, used by Natural World Products, a compost recycling company which has contracts with this council and other councils to repurpose brown bin waste.
“There has been a high volume of complaints, not only coming to myself, but also to the council, the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and NIE about air pollution emanating from this site.
“It is genuinely affecting people’s quality of life.”
Belfast city council chief executive John Walsh intervened and said: “It is wrong in these circumstances to name a company until there is an evidential basis for doing so.
“Could you mind how you are addressing the issue?”
Mr Collins asked for a report by councillors on the site in question, including the volume of complaints from residents.
Sinn Féin councillor Arder Carson said he, along with MLA Órlaithí Flynn, had already held a meeting with council officers in relation to the issue.
“I would suggest that Councillor Collins does the same thing,” he said.
“I also took the time to go and visit the site, speak to the owners, and raise the issues that some constituents had raised with me.
“I got some assurances about short-term mitigation and complete resolution to the infrequent odour that emanates from that site.
“So I think if Councillor Collins took the time to speak to some council officers or went and visited the site to have a conversation with the owners, he would get the information he probably needs.”
He added: “We also met with the campaign group, and we are organising a meeting with them and the site owners as well.
“That will bring further clarity to the issue.”
Mr Collins replied: “We are working in Stormont to put ministerial questions to the DAERA minister, and thanks for the advice, but I have also been in contact with council officers”.
Sinn Féin councillor Matt Garrett also said there had been a report “brought back two months ago at my request” on the issue and he would have “the appropriate council officer” contact the PBP councillor.
Natural World Products have previously said it takes “odour complaints very seriously and work closely with our local community and the NIEA should a complaint arise”.
