Seaside town kicks up a stink

Seaside town kicks up a stink

Waste water is treated before being returned rivers or the sea

A Northumberland council has received a number of complaints about a bad smell in a seaside town.

The bad odour is coming from sewage works in Amble, which were commissioned three years ago at a cost of more than £10m.

Northumbrian Water said the problem was being caused by Amble company Cheviot Foods putting more vegetable waste down the pipes than had been agreed.

But the food company says the treatment plants are not big enough to cope.

Alnwick District Council's environmental health department said it has had numerous complaints.

The Amble Development Trust said the smell is driving visitors and investors away.

'Serious problem'

Alistair Baker, spokesman from Northumbrian Water, said they were working to get rid of the problem.

He said: "Northumbrian Water is determined to resolve the problem. We are treating it very seriously.

"We have issued cautions against the trader who has a legal responsibility to meet consents.

"We are working with the trader on a long term solution to the problem which we hope can be found as soon as possible and without the need for prosecution."

Fully co-operated

Helen Moore, human resources director from Cheviot Foods said the company was "certainly not" to blame.

"The waste water from Cheviot Foods is water that has been used to either wash, cook or transport potatoes," she said.

"It is the kind of waste water you would have in your kitchen after cooking but on a bigger scale.

"The fundamental problem is that the new treatment plant simply isn't big enough.

"When the treatment plant was first proposed in 1994 we cooperated fully with Northumbrian Water, providing them with all the information they requested.

"At the end of that process they agreed that they would be able to handle our waste water but when the plant became operational it was clear it could not."