Vaughan Gething says Withyhedge landfill stench unacceptable

Vaughan Gething has faced repeated questioning in the Senedd since he became first minister over the money given to him by Dauson, owned by a man twice convicted of environmental offence.

He has maintained throughout that he has broken no rules, has fully declared the donations and cannot take decisions relating to the organisation, which runs a number of waste, recycling and demolition businesses.

In the Senedd on Tuesday Mr Davies accused Mr Gething, in his response to the Welsh Tory’s questions about Withyhedge, of failing to verbally declare the cash given to him.

Mr Gething said there had been no dishonesty from him about the donations, which he said had been declared publicly.

The Cardiff South and Penarth MS had asked NRW to ease restrictions on a separate part of Dauson – Atlantic Recycling – in 2016.

When the correspondence came to light, he said it was “routine practice” for elected politicians to correspond with public bodies on constituency issues.

Mr Davies said the residents around the landfill site “are really having a nightmare of a situation inflicted on them”.

“The smells, the odours, are unbearable for residents in this part of west Wales,” he told the Welsh Parliament.

He referred to a recent newsletter from Natural Resources Wales which reissued advice from Public Health Wales, originally issued in March, that “odours and emissions from this site may be harmful to health”.

Mr Gething said it was “important that improvement action is taken to resolve the issue”.

“My understanding is that NRW are taking action to both monitor and to require improvement, and the key point here is that the operator meets those requirements.”

Mr Davies claimed he had spoken to one individual who said that the smell was so strong at 06:30 in the morning that it caused him to vomit.

He said he was sure that Mr Gething would want to put on the record that the first minister had a “conflict of interest”.

Mr Gething said he had not taken “any action in this instance” and that he was unaware of a “single member of the government has attempted to influence the action of NRW”.

“I wouldn’t expect any community to simply tolerate what is happening – that’s why action needs to be taken,” he said.