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Lawyers for Mathew Richards argued there is a “public health emergency” in the vicinity of Walleys Quarry, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

At a hearing last month, the High Court in London heard that Mathew was a vulnerable child who had been born prematurely with a chronic lung disease.

The five-year-old’s doctor told the court that as emissions from the landfill site were preventing his recovery and lung development, he was at risk of developing a chronic lung disease that would reduce his life expectancy.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Fordham made a declaration that the Environment Agency (EA) “must implement” Public Health England’s advice to reduce concentrations of hydrogen sulphide in the local area by January next year.”

He said: “I am satisfied that there is a direct effect on Mathew’s home, family life and private life from adverse effects of severe environmental pollution.”

In her evidence, Mathew’s mother Rebecca Currie described fumes from the site as “a stomach-wrenching smell like rotten eggs”, as other residents said they suffered headaches and nosebleeds which they attributed to the smell from the quarry.

After the judgment, Ms Currie said: “This decision today is going to give Mathew and the community fresh air again. Not what we’ve been breathing in.”

An EA spokesperson said: “We have every sympathy with the local community, who should not have to live with the distress caused by landfill gas.”

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