R v Secretary of State for the Environment & Another ex p West Wiltshire District Council [1997] JPL 210

Malcolm Spence QC (sitting as a Deputy Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division): The Second Respondents, Comptons, have run a piggery and allied businesses constituting an animal by-product rendering process near Bradford-on-Avon since 1941. Over the years there have been numerous complaints about the smell thereby caused. The Environmental Protection Act was passed in 1990 and in October 1992 Comptons made an application for authorisation under the Act. The present applicants, the West Wiltshire District Council, as enforcing authority under the Act, refused it. So Comptons appealed to the Secretary of State for the Environment under s 15 of the Act. A hearing was held in August 1994 and the Inspector concluded decisively against the grant of authorisation. However, the Secretary of State disagreed with him, and by his decision letter of 22 August 1995 granted an authorisation subject to numerous conditions.