Anybody here from Stoke on Trent who can smell the smell?

Scania said:
Was anybody at the protest the other week? - I was - along with the local MP who in fairness has tried his best on the issue, even involving the P.M.
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I was watching live on Facebook, I know many who were there.
I start rehearsing soon in a conservatory that is 150metres from it :(

Lowe said:
The smell is truly horrific when the wind is blowing it your way. I have a shop on Paris Avenue and we get customers from all over the country. Almost all from outside the area ask what the smell is - hydrogen sulphide. I’ve bought an air purifier for our house to help but honestly it’s not enough. I genuinely feel for those that live closer than us, it’s destroying their lives. I do t know how the travellers cope!
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It seems to be people in your area and Trent Vale who are getting it the worst.
 
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Very true. I'm sure if they're price well they will sell fine. We were actually half tempted by house that came onto the market recently. It's about 250m from the landfill and was lovely just too close. Sold within a couple of weeks.
 
I've only been through Stoke on the train and it looked like the most grey dreary depressing place ever, and now I hear it smells bad too?

Why does anybody live there? :p
 
XeNoN89 said:
Why does anybody live there? :p
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Well there's cheap housing and it's in a great "location" with Manchester/Birmingham and two international airports 1hr drive away, 30mins from the Pennines and Alton Park etc :D

However there can be a really weird "never try to improve yourself" attitude from lots of folks in the council estates me and my best mate grew up on (Bentilee, Abbey Hulton etc), a kind of sneering "why don't you want to be thick like me" attitude, which just comes off as jealously wrapped in hatred from those who preach it, like somehow being a "Stokie ****" is something to be desperately proud of. I mean it's not that common TBF but once you meet that attitude, even from Stokies who've left Stoke, it's off-putting so I can see why we get a bad rep around the UK.
 
ianh said:
Well there's cheap housing and it's in a great "location" with Manchester/Birmingham and two international airports 1hr drive away, 30mins from the Pennines and Alton Park etc :D

However there can be a really weird "never try to improve yourself" attitude from lots of folks in the council estates me and my best mate grew up on (Bentilee, Abbey Hulton etc), a kind of sneering "why don't you want to be thick like me" attitude, which just comes off as jealously wrapped in hatred from those who preach it, like somehow being a "Stokie ****" is something to be desperately proud of. I mean it's not that common TBF but once you meet that attitude, even from Stokies who've left Stoke, it's off-putting so I can see why we get a bad rep around the UK.
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Dated a girl who lived on the Newstead estate some years ago and her family were like that. I ******* detested them, not a single one of them had worked a day in their lives and lived purely on state handouts and petty crime and were actually proud to brag about it. Thankfully though, down here in the Boothen area of Stoke it's a very friendly and quiet area.

And like you say, cheap housing coupled with a decent location is great. Plus Wales is basically on the doorstep so you have all that epic scenery to explore.
 
XeNoN89 said:
I've only been through Stoke on the train and it looked like the most grey dreary depressing place ever, and now I hear it smells bad too?

Why does anybody live there? :p
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Usually because they were born there, but there are other reasons. Especially if you don't have children.

I paid £28K for a reasonably decent 2 bedroom house in a quiet residential area less than 10 minutes walk from the city centre. Even today, a house like that can be bought around here for ~£70K. That's not in the bad areas of S-o-T. I don't know what the house prices are like in those areas and I don't care because I wouldn't choose to live there even if the houses were free.

The sole downside to my location is that for some reason the Openreach fibre network doesn't reach the top of the hill despite it being less than a kilometre from the city centre. If I moved a couple of dozen houses downhill I'd be able to get it, but at this end of the street the only choice for fibre is Virgin.
 
I wasn't going to get drawn in to the comments about Stoke but I'll have my say and even if I won 10 million on the Lottery I'd just find a more suitable property in Stoke.
I've lived for 63 years in (proper) Stoke, Fenton and Blurton and NEVER had a problem.
I've lived in my current house since 1983 and the only theft I know about is someone nicked a childs bike out of the drive.
I have no problem walking through our 'rough' areas like Fegg Hayes, Bentilee, Meir etc but don't be mistaken that they are the same as proper rough areas in other areas of the country, they are pussy areas compared to them.
Even our Muslim areas of Normacot & Shelton, I wouldn't have the slightest problem walking through, again they are pussy areas compared to other areas of the country.
When it starts again we also have a great local music scene and if I'm not gigging I'll be able to choose from dozens of acts who will be performing doing different types of music.

This smell is something different, we have no industry now so we can't blame it on pits, pottery, steel works etc, it is a waste dump site out of control.
It is affecting an area going from Keele University > Silverdale > Newcastle > Trent Vale and Trentham which if you look at a map are in a straight line down the left side of 'Stoke'.
People like me in Blurton, Malevolence in Boothen and Angilion in (Northwood!) Hanley do not smell it but get our normal fresh air.
 
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Yup, having traveled most of the real crap holes in the country I can honestly say it’s nice to return to the relative sanity of Stoke.

Sure it has its issues like anywhere else, but I’d far rather live here in North Staffordshire than many many other places I frequent regularly.

Oh and the landfill stank to high heaven this morning on the way to work....
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I wasn't going to get drawn in to the comments about Stoke but I'll have my say and even if I won 10 million on the Lottery I'd just find a more suitable property in Stoke.
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I probably wouldn't even go that far. I'd have some improvements done to my home. It's my home. Maybe I'd prefer a nice bungalow when I'm older. Or a flat, maybe. Something without stairs.

I've lived for 63 years in (proper) Stoke, Fenton and Blurton and NEVER had a problem.
I've lived in my current house since 1983 and the only theft I know about is someone nicked a childs bike out of the drive.
I have no problem walking through our 'rough' areas like Fegg Hayes, Bentilee, Meir etc but don't be mistaken that they are the same as proper rough areas in other areas of the country, they are pussy areas compared to them.
Even our Muslim areas of Normacot & Shelton, I wouldn't have the slightest problem walking through, again they are pussy areas compared to other areas of the country.
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I've had my house burgled once, been assaulted once and harassed and threatened by racists a couple of times. Burglaries happen everywhere, so that was just unlucky. The assault was in the middle of the night in Bentilee and I could have avoided it if I had been less reckless. Also, it wasn't particularly serious. One punch, not particularly hard. I didn't even go down. More of a dominance thing. The racism was, unsurprisingly, in Shelton. Near the graffiti saying that it's an Asian area and whites aren't welcome there. No idea if that graffiti is still there, but I'm sure the attitude is. But again, it's much less bad than it is in some areas.

When it starts again we also have a great local music scene and if I'm not gigging I'll be able to choose from dozens of acts who will be performing doing different types of music.
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The best live music I've ever heard was in the old Wheatsheaf in Stoke some years back. A Jimi Hendrix tribute band led by someone who was skilled enough to pull it off. There were people in the audience who'd heard Jimi Hendrix live and they were approving.

This smell is something different, we have no industry now so we can't blame it on pits, pottery, steel works etc, it is a waste dump site out of control.
It is affecting an area going from Keele University > Silverdale > Newcastle > Trent Vale and Trentham which if you look at a map are in a straight line down the left side of 'Stoke'.
People like me in Blurton, Malevolence in Boothen and Angilion in (Northwood!) Hanley do not smell it but get our normal fresh air.
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I live on high ground in an area of high ground(*) in a street which acts somewhat as a wind tunnel. Plenty of ventilation! The wind's often enough to throw around wheelie bins and suchlike. Hanley or Northwood? I don't even know where the invisible line between the two is.

The air isn't normally all that fresh, but I hadn't really noticed until the pandemic greatly improved air quality. That's far from specific to Stoke-on-Trent though. It's not like it's New Delhi.

Hanley does have a fecal stink sometimes. I'd put it down to farming and wind, but maybe it's that dump and wind.









* While the etymology is uncertain due to changes in spelling over the centuries, one plausible translation of 'Hanley' is 'high meadow'. Stoke-upon-Trent is an older town and from the point of view of people living there in the early medieval period 'high meadow' would probably have been an accurate description of this area.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Those who know - know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-56347375

In an area called Silverdale is Whalley's Quarry and it is exactly 1 mile from OCUK so I'm sure all the staff can smell it.
I first came across it 2 years ago when I went to my mates house and told him to ring the gas board but he said 150 metres over that fence is a landfill.
Since then an absolutely massive area of Stoke have consistently complained about it, it is awful and getting worse.
I work about 1.5 miles from it at the hospital and it reaches wards including NICU, I couldn't believe when I walked in the ward of very poorly babies and the smell was in there.

This is just a rant but interested to know how many Stokies and OCUK staff suffer this daily?

A few posts:
Second morning in a row that I’ve actually vomited in my sleep at 6am, sat up and the bedroom stinks of gas. What are we breathing in ?

I've fainted 3 times walking past it

It's making me so bad I cant eat a meal I'm throwing up bad stomach sore eyes bad head aches I have a baby with breathing difficulties and is on oxygen to look after and my partner who has kidney problem it's a joke how they are killing us off

Rotting Putrid stench in our home again tonight Westbury Park
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Reported EA Ref number 1921607

Can't believe the stench this morning it's all through my house.

and so on ............
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Am surprised there still emptying rubbish into land fill waste sites :(

I would have thought the UK had stopped doing this by now and were now recycling
 
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