Club’s training abandoned over smell

A TYRONE GAA club says it had to stop its training session on Friday night due to the smell which they allege was coming from a nearby mushroom plant.

The Minor team of Killeeshil St Mary’s was holding the session at its home grounds near Cabragh close to the Northway Mushrooms on the Aghnagar Road.

Club chairman, Colm Rafferty said that the smell from the plant has now ‘seemingly got worse’ over the past six months.

“This is impacting severely on our players and managers and indeed our entire community,” he said.

“As club chairman, I ask the Directors of Northway to please start dealing with this serious health issue immediately.”

Mr Rafferty also called on the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development and the Public Health Agerncy to take the necessary action to stop what he described as a ‘vile odour.’

“The people of this area have suffered enough and deserve to be protected by those who can within these agencies,” he added.

Concerns were raised about the plant in 2020. At that time the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) said it was aware of complaints in relation to the facility.

They said that the facility was regulated by NIEA and odour conditions fall under the authorisation for the facility and that the company had made modofications and improvements to emission controls at the facility and that this work was ongoing.