MP praises residents who have won battle over stench misery

The company is to invest 7.6m in improvements to Scarborough's 30m treatment plant and its Scalby Mills pumping station.

It follows two years of complaints by residents of well-to-do Scalby Mills, led by Scarborough businessman Don Robinson, who lives near the pumping station.

Scarborough and Whitby Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: "Last Christmas in particular the whole system was overloaded. There have been quite a few nasty smells at Scalby Mills so the announcement is very good news indeed.

"There have been two distinct smells, one of sewage and the other quite chemical. Don Robinson has had to sleep in his back bedroom to get away from the smell."

Mr Goodwill has written to Scarborough Council, asking the authority to add its weight to a campaign for an upgrade.

"But it now looks as if no campaign will be needed," he added.

"I am very pleased that the local community – with Don Robinson leading the charge – has succeeded and Yorkshire Water has accepted there is a problem."

In the early 1990s, Mr Robinson and his neighbours were involved in a long battle with Yorkshire Water over a rotten eggs-type stench from the pumping station, which formerly discharged raw sewage into the sea after screening out the debris.

The complaints died down after Yorkshire Water opened a 30m sewage treatment plant north of Scalby Mills in 2000. It allowed Scarborough effluent to be pumped to Scalby Mills and then piped underground to the new treatment centre at Scalby Lodge.

The sewage receives preliminary treatment at Scalby Mills and then receives three further stages of treatment at the new plant including hi-tech ultra violet light disinfection.

However, Mr Robinson says that when odours began wafting over the houses two years ago it soon became clear that the process was no longer working properly.

Mr Goodwill believes the problem may be due to a lack of top water drainage, which led to excess rainwater overloading the sewage system.