£50,000 for community hit by sewage smells ‘not enough’

Yorkshire Water is giving the money to a new community fund, as an apology to people living near the works, which opened over a decade ago at Saltend near Hull.

A panel of mainly councillors meets later this month to establish the ground rules for how the fund will operate.

But Hedon councillor John Dennis, who will sit on the panel, said he had suggested £100,000 would be nearer the mark when he put the idea to the company last year. He said: “No I don’t think it’s enough. I was hoping that we would have twice that amount. You try and work it out on the basis of people who live in a reasonable vicinity and it’s a small amount of money.

“It will go into the community and hopefully do some good but it won’t go very far.”

The company said yesterday it hadn’t received any complaints about smell from the site since February.

They are pinning their hopes on a new £3.5m odour control unit, but has been careful to stress it won’t get rid of all smells and admit their biggest test has yet to come over the summer.

The unit, which was launched last December, covers the sludge processing part of the site - usually the smelliest area - and uses Turkish pumice infused with natural bacteria in 10 large black tanks, half of which are known aptly as “peacemakers”, to treat the air.

Last year the stench which resulted from a combination of dry weather, which meant the sewage took longer to get to the plant, and was more concentrated, and the residue of the pea harvest, which is processed in Hull, led to a record 181 complaints and a petition with 2,400 names.

Matt Thompson, from Yorkshire Water, said anyone could pitch a project to the panel that will benefit the community, adding: “We are absolutely confident that what we have done so far will significantly reduce the odours; we can’t eliminate them. It is a sewage treatment works, by the nature of the operation there will be come odour connected with that.”

The plant treats 40 million gallons of waste water daily, including a complex mix of trade effluent, before discharging into the Humber.