Leo Group owner Danny Sawrij has outlined an ambitious five-year plan which could see up to 3,000 homes in Penrith being heated by the Omega Proteins plant on the outskirts of town.
Speaking at a community liaison meeting held at Newton Rigg last Wednesday, Mr Sawrij said he knew why the audience of 100-plus had turned out — to find out about his company’s “odour abatement techniques and strategies” in light of there being 334 odour-related complaints about Omega Proteins to the Environment Agency last month.
“We want to be a good neighbour — genuinely we do,” said Mr Sawrij.
On future plans for the company, he said: “We are going to put a pipeline to Newton Rigg Farm and then over to the campus and our intention is that, within two years, the campus will be running on waste heat from our factory. Within five years, we believe we can use the waste heat to supply 2,000 to 3,000 houses in Penrith with appropriate heating to warm their houses.
“We are currently working with a company in Finland who are guiding us with how we can achieve that.”
He added that discussions were ongoing with the local authority and its planning department about how this could be accomplished.
However, the meeting heard from residents that they were being forced to keep their windows shut and they could not hang washing out on the line. There was also a belief that smells emitted from the factory were making them ill and affecting their mental and physical health.
One Penrith resident said the town was a lovely place to live and it was trying to develop itself as a hub for Lake District tourism.
“But a lot of the B&B and hotel owners get nasty reviews on Tripadvisor because of the smell. How are we supposed to develop Penrith in this way if it stinks?” she asked.
In response, Mr Sawrij — who mounted a determined defence of his company during the near two-hour long session — said: “I suppose (it comes down to) the perception of stink. Is what you call stink, 24 hours, seven days a week, or 16 minutes or eight minutes throughout the day?”
He told the meeting: “Despite the number of calls to the Environment Agency, which in the month of July was 334 complaints, we have only received 36 calls to our dedicated hotline number (07976 857 435) in July.”
Calling Omega’s hotline was said to be important because it means the company can quickly respond, discuss the issue directly with the caller and it helps them understand environmental conditions in real time and ascertain where the odour is coming from.
“If our factory is the likely cause, we can immediately report to the site, investigate and get to the bottom of the root cause,” he said.
It was also important to make an accurate record of when the odour was first smelled and when it went away.
“We can use that information and that data to track back what is happening on the site. To say it has been smelling all day doesn’t help us. We need that timeline.
“We are not saying don’t call the Environment Agency. Yes, please call the Environment Agency, but please call our number so we can gather this data and improve. Without data from you, we can’t improve,” he said.
It was also agreed that following a call to the hotline, the company would report back with its findings to the complainant.
The company employs three trained off-site odour checkers who do routine, reactive and proactive checks. They are on site seven days a week, at a minimum of four times a day at various times from 8am to 9pm.
Mr Sawrij said the meeting was about sharing an overview of the business, investments in the Penrith factory and odour complaints.
The family-owned and managed business is one of the UK’s leading collectors of animal by-products and produces high quality meals and oils to be used in various industries, he said. Its functions include making wet pet food ingredients, renewable energy generation, waste recycling and transport logistics.
“Omega Proteins, Penrith, operates a category three animal by-products processing plant — this is material which is fit for human consumption and has no edible market.
“In some parts of the world, products we produce here at Penrith goes for human consumption,” said Mr Sawrij. He explained that without rendering, there would not be a meat industry, and the Leo Group was one of only four businesses in the United Kingdom which carries out rendering.
“After the animal is slaughtered the material is taken for human consumption, what isn’t required for human consumption goes to a site like our own.
“In the UK, there are over 20 million chickens processed every week,” said Mr Sawrij. “The big thing now is aviation fuel. The majority of the oil now produced goes into manufacturing HVO.
“We have a factory in Belgium where we send the majority of the oil that makes HVO and that goes into the airline industry which is supplying renewable fuel for people to fly in different parts of the world.
“In any retail supermarket you look on the shelf and 75 per cent of the products in some shape or form will have been supplied by one of our subsidiaries in the UK.
“British Airways have just made a commitment by 2030 that they want to use 1.5 billion litres of renewable fuel,” said Mr Sawrij.
In 2022, the Leo Group produced 105 million litres of fuel for the HVO sector. That equates to 13 per cent of British Airways’ renewable fuel requirement. The Penrith Omega site has had export sales close to £90 million in the last 12 months.
It employs 175 people including drivers, mechanics, administrators, engineers and cleaners, and the wage bill for the site last year was £7.7 million. Mr Sawrij added: “We have invested over £105 million into the Penrith site since we acquired it on 5th February, 2002.
“We have invested into buildings, odour abatement, technology, energy efficiency, equipment and people. Ten years ago, all its raw effluent was discharged into the main sewer. That is no longer the case.
“Nine years ago, it used to take 50,000 cubic metres of water from the mains, but for the last three years we have taken nothing from the mains following an £8.5m investment into an effluent plant to make clean water.
“I am not saying that we always get everything right. But we do try to do things right.”
Among those to speak up about the problems being experienced by people locally was a representative for the community of Newton Reigny, who told the meeting: “This is about the impact it is having on people. It doesn’t matter how important the industry is, it is what it is doing to people here. Recently, you have acquired Sewborwens Farm, you have been spraying liquid material late at night and very, very early in the morning.
“I cycled past Newton Rigg six weeks ago and I nearly vomited with the foul smell, it was absolutely disgusting. I am here representing people of Newton Reigny who are absolutely fed up with it. You are literally blighting their lives.”
Mr Sawrij said the company has interests in anaerobic digestion plants across the United Kingdom and the liquid fertiliser which results from that process has been taken to Sewborwens Farm and been spread on the land.
“For the last three weeks, because of issues, we have ceased that operation,” he said. The meeting was also told that work was also nearing completion on a new filter bed at the Omega site, which would evidently help with the odour issues. The meeting was attended by representatives of a total of 58 households, 13 councillors and two Environment Agency representatives. A further community liaison meeting is set to be held in about two months’ time.
- We have been asked to point out that not all of the 334 complaints about odour made to the Environment Agency have been verified as linked to Omega Proteins.
Residents kick up a stink about Penrith Pong at public meeting
