People feel trapped in their own homes by 'unbearable smells'

Families have said they feel trapped in their homes due to "unbearable smells" they believe are coming from a nearby industrial estate.

Colette Casey said the smell can get so bad "it makes your eyes water and stings the back of your throat, to the point you have to close the windows".

Casey, along with other families, has been raising concerns about Granville Industrial Estate for years but said they feel "abandoned" because their quality of life has been affected by odours and they are calling for tougher regulation.

New figures obtained by BBC News NI show there have been more than 10,000 complaints to local authorities about bad smells across Northern Ireland during the past five years.

There were fewer than 60 enforcement actions taken during the same time period.

Colette, from Eskragh just outside Dungannon in County Tyrone, said the severity of the smell depended on things like wind direction and the time of day.

"After a long day at work, you want to go outside but sometimes the smell is so bad it makes your eyes water and stings the back of your throat, to the point you have to close the windows of the house and you feel trapped in your own home," she said.

Most of the complaints were made to local councils, with the Belfast, Newry, Armagh, Mid Ulster and Causeway Coast and Glens council areas clocking up the highest number.

The number of smell complaints in Mid Ulster trebled between 2021 and 2025, but despite this the council did not issue any enforcement notices.

Mid Ulster Council said it investigated "all odour related reports received in line with relevant legislation".

In recent years BBC News NI has reported on odour issues affecting communities including in Killeeshil, Warrenpoint and Artigarvan.

There are a number of ways to complain about odours in Northern Ireland.

Concerns can be with raised with a local council, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).

Granville Industrial Estate houses more than 20 businesses, including several factories that deal in everything from food processing, agri-business, meat processing, cold storage, and bio-waste energy.

"Over the past 10 to 15 years the factory activity has increased and so too has the smell issue and it's really impacting our quality of life," Colette said.

"Sometimes it's a very strong chemical like smell, other times it's a sort of decaying and rotten like smell, both are hugely unpleasant."

Colette said part of the problem was that the large number of factories made it difficult to identify exactly where the smell was coming from.

Figures released under Freedom of Information laws showed nearly 400 complaints were made to NIEA about factories in Granville Industrial Estate between October 2020 and October 2025.

Almost half were about the Granville Ecopark (GECO) factory.

It is a factory that deals in renewable energy and food waste.

Figures released by the NIEA in response to an assembly question also showed that between 2021 and 2025 there were 50 occasions when odour was detected during an inspection of GECO.

Meanwhile the NIEA also confirmed it flagged four condition breaches with GECO between 2019 and 2025.

Two resulted in enforcement action because of odour issues, including the fact that odour had been detected off site.

On 8 May the NIEA confirmed it received a notification from GECO about "the release of an odorant that had been detected on their site".

The odour – which smelt like gas - had been reported in the village of Eglish, which is more than three miles away.

In a statement a spokesperson for GECO said it took its regulatory responsibilities seriously and was making significant investments on the site "to ensure it operates to the highest standards".

"When an issue is identified, we have worked quickly to resolve it and liaised with NIEA in line with our obligations as a regulated site," the spokesperson said.

The NIEA flagged four condition breaches with Granville-based meat processing company, Dunbia, between 2019 and 2025.

These related to monitoring and air and water emissions.

In a statement the company said it took its environmental responsibilities seriously and had "invested significantly" at the site.

"Opportunities for improvement are continuously assessed in conjunction with NIEA and further targeted investment is scheduled in the coming months," a spokesperson said.

Documents released to BBC News NI also shed further light on the odour issues in Granville.

A briefing document issued by Stormont advisers ahead of a ministerial visit to GECO in July 2022 outlined how there had been hundreds of noise and odour complaints.

The document stated "the situation is complex due to the number of operators situated close together – it is often difficult to determine the source of any noise or odour issues and the issues appear to be contributed to by a number of different operators".

In a statement to BBC News NI, the NIEA said it had received reports of odour relating to a number of regulated sites in Granville and it was monitoring the situation to "ensure permit and license conditions are being complied with".

Friends of the Earth NI said the findings on the issue of odour complaints highlighted a worrying trend.

Director, James Orr, said 10,000 complaints might sound like a lot but were probably only "the tip of the iceberg".

"There are probably lots of people from these communities who got fed up with no action being taken, and stopped complaining," he said.

"Especially when you consider how low the enforcement actions numbers are compared to the complaints, that raises legitimate questions about that effectiveness of the statutory agencies.

"People can sometimes be dismissive about odour issues, but if you live in those communities impacted by it can feel like being hostages in your own home."

The NIEA said it would engage with other statutory bodies around odour issues and "will continue to take appropriate enforcement action" when necessary.