The smell they cannot escape: Newhaven’s pollution battle
A new pressure group in Newhaven has drawn up a list of demands on an asphalt plant whose emissions, say residents, are blighting lives and threatening health across the town. Green Party District Councillor Paul Keene provides an update on what’s happening – and how you can support residents’ call for action.
At the edge of the English Channel, in the East Sussex port town of Newhaven, the people are fighting for something most of us take for granted: the ability to breathe clean air in their own homes.
Since 2020, residents of Newhaven – and the neighbouring communities of Denton, Mount Pleasant, and South Heighton – have been subjected to an increasingly intolerable stench from the FM Conway asphalt plant. Now owned by multinational construction firm Vinci, the site has become a source of public anger and civic mobilisation, amid growing fears about the environmental and health impacts of unchecked industrial emissions.
The smell is described as overpowering – chemical, bituminous, sometimes burnt and sickly. It drifts across housing estates, schools, and playparks, reaching deep into people’s homes. Families have reported sore throats, nausea, and an inability to sleep with windows open. “It’s like living beside a fire that never goes out,” one resident recently said.
This is not an isolated complaint. The problem has been widely reported in the Sussex Express, The Argus, and featured on BBC South East radio and ITV Meridian News. It has also appeared at local planning committee hearings at Lewes District Council (LDC) and East Sussex County Council (ESCC) since December 2023. Yet despite the coverage, the evidence, and the mounting complaints, enforcement from the relevant authorities has been virtually non-existent.
The FM Conway site is subject to an environmental permit administered by LDC, planning controls enforced by ESCC, and pollution regulations under the Environment Agency (EA). All three institutions have been made aware – repeatedly – of alleged breaches. These include:
- Failure to control odorous emissions, particularly from the Hot RAP (Hot Recycled Asphalt Product) process;
- Uncovered storage of asphalt planings and imported aggregates;
- Lack of carbon filtration technology, which is standard at comparable sites;
- Absence of real-time air quality monitoring, leaving emissions effectively unmeasured and unchallenged.
Despite these clear risks, residents say they’ve been met with a tangle of pass-the-buck bureaucracy. “Everyone points to someone else,” said one campaigner. “Meanwhile, we’re left to breathe it in.”
It is here that the grassroots pressure group Protect the People and Environment Newhaven (PEN) has emerged as a vital force. Formed by local residents, PEN has conducted its own technical assessments and compiled submissions to council planning committees. The group is calling for a straightforward, science-based set of reforms:
- Installation of industrial-grade carbon filtration across all emission points;
- Independent air quality monitoring, with permanent sensors and receptor points;
- Full enclosure of materials in negative pressure used and stored on site;
- An end to self-reporting by the operator, in favour of third-party verification.
These are not radical demands. They reflect best practice in an industry that – if properly regulated – can operate safely within urban communities. Yet neither FM Conway nor Vinci has committed to any of them. And still, LDC and ESCC have not compelled action. Meanwhile, the burden continues to fall on residents – and particularly on children, the elderly, and those with respiratory vulnerabilities.
This local crisis also echoes broader national and global patterns: where infrastructure and heavy industry are sited in less affluent areas, environmental protections often lag. What’s unfolding in Newhaven is a textbook example of environmental injustice – where regulatory failure enables harm to communities with the least power to resist it.
It also raises critical questions about the climate resilience of our planning frameworks. Asphalt production is an energy-intensive process, and uncontrolled emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulates contribute to both localised air pollution and global warming. The absence of filtration or emissions monitoring is not just a local planning concern – it is a systemic failure in our environmental governance.
The people of Newhaven are not anti-industry. But they are demanding that industry respect their right to clean air, environmental dignity, and legal compliance. Their campaign is rooted in science, law, and principle – not in nimbyism or ideology.
It is time for the authorities to match that clarity with action. FM Conway and Vinci must install proper filtration, allow for external scrutiny, and enclose all operations that pose airborne risks. And councils must enforce the rules they are mandated to uphold – not merely cite them.
In a country where we claim to take climate action seriously, and where environmental health is enshrined in planning law, Newhaven residents should never have had to fight this battle. But they are – and they’re doing it with tenacity, grace, and grit. Their message, in the end, is simple: clean air is not a luxury. It is a right.
How to help
Please help Newhaven residents by signing the petition below asking the district council to investigate and consider issuing an abatement notice on FM Conway Asphalt Plant:
You can also pick up a an A5 poster to display in your window at Lewes Climate Hub, Lewes House, 32 High Street.