A BLACKBURN company is facing allegations that its manufacturing plant has been polluting homeowners’ gardens.

A resident, who wishes to remain anonymous but has supplied photo evidence, also claimed WSBL Ltd, on Hereford Road off Carl Fogarty Way, has been causing noise pollution during the early hours of the morning which has kept him, his family and others who live nearby awake.

The company, which specialises in the production of noise control foams and felt materials, has declined to comment on the allegations, however it is understood that a minor mechanical issue occurred last bank holiday Monday, damaging the company’s silo as it was being filled with non-hazardous material.

The local resident said: “They’ve been putting powder out for years into my house, my neighbour's house and my other neighbour before that.

“They’ve been doing it for years and I’ve been sending emails, but there’s been no care.”

He said that several households in the area have had similar complaints and that many of them have found powder produced by the factory in their gardens, on their cars and on clothes left on washing lines and that numerous complaints he has made have been ignored.

He said: “We were out in the garden the other day, because during lockdown we can’t do anything else, and the powder just went everywhere.”

The father-of-four says that he and two of his children have developed rashes.

He is also disturbed by what he says is an excessive level of noise produced by WSBL which has impacted on his own family as well as neighbours.

He said: “For the last six weeks the noise has been keeping us awake and they’re meant to be producing sound mufflers – the irony.”

Councillor Jim Smith, executive member for environmental services, said: “This is the first I’ve heard of it but what we normally do is send an officer down to see if there are any toxins and if there are we work with the company to sort it out. If there’s any threat to health, we’ll deal with it.”