Council Takes Action Against Yorkshire Water Over Bad Smells At Saltend
They've issued the company with an abatement order.
East Riding Council have served an abatement notice on Yorkshire Water.
It's following an investigation into complaints from residents about bad smells coming from the waste water treatment works in Saltend.
The notice requires the firm to stop odours escaping from the plant.
Nigel Leighton, director of environment and neighbourhood services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said:
"Since 14, July 2015 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."
Bradley Robinson lives near the plant and has led the campaign into the problem. He told us:
"The council have listened to Yorkshire Water and have accepted their proposals to improve things and in reality it hasn't happened, as we all know. The abatement order will make it more finalised and will govern by the court of law so the company will have to make the changes or they will be financially penalised. The council want a good solution to this just as much as we do.
"Everyone will be delighted with this news, not just myself, the rest of the people that have been affected by the smells. It is what everyone wants, the abatement order is essential really as it is going to govern Yorkshire Water by law.
"The smell will come into your house so you'll close your windows and then you'll get up in a morning and it's still there and it's not nice at all. A lot of the people on the campaign have got children and I think that is what's driven them because it's not fair for their children to be brought up in this environment. There has also been concerns about the health implications of some of the gases people could potentially be breathing in"
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said:
“East Riding of Yorkshire Council has served us with a Statutory Nuisance Order in relation to odours coming from our waste water treatment works at Saltend.
“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.”