Water firm served with legal notice over stench from plant

The company could face prosecution if it fails to comply with the order, which requires it to prevent odours escaping from the plant.

There have been complaints about smells from the plant at Saltend since it opened 15 years ago, but people living nearby say it has been getting worse despite multi-million pound attempts to solve the problem.

Earlier this month a petition with more than 2,000 names was handed to East Riding Council calling on it to serve the abatement order.

Another protest is planned outside the gates of the plant this weekend.

Paul Benson, a retired teacher, who lives at Hedon, said: “It is good news and hopefully it will solve the problem.

“This summer it has been particularly bad and there have been times when we have gone to bed with the smell - it is appalling really.

“We can smell it today just over three miles away. Whilst hopefully the problem will be solved this year, it needs a long-term solution.

“Only then will the people of Hedon start to breathe a sigh of relief.”

The problem stem from the increased amount of effluent from a massive frozen pea factory in east Hull, which the waste water treatment works receives over a couple of months in the summer.

Up to 17 tankerloads of “healthy seed” bacteria have been arriving at the plant in recent weeks to try and get on top of the problem.

In a statement Nigel Leighton, the council’s director of environment and neighbourhood services, said: “Since July 14 officers from the council’s environmental health team have been investigating complaints from residents about odours coming from Yorkshire Water’s waste water treatment works at Saltend.

“The investigation confirms that a statutory nuisance exists.

“The council has a legal obligation to serve an abatement notice on Yorkshire Water, which has now been done.”

Yorkshire Water said: “We accept that we have work to do to resolve this problem and have been liaising closely with the council for some time about the operational issues we face.

“Only last month we announced a full review of the site’s treatment processes and future investment needs to establish what needs to be done to

ensure we can adequately cope with peak season flows in the future.

“In the meantime we would like to apologise once again to those customers affected by this problem.”