Yorkshire Water served legal notice over “Saltend stink”

YORKSHIRE WATER has been served an abatement notice by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council over odours coming from its Saltend plant.

The bad smells, dubbed the “Saltend stink”, have been affecting residents for around a decade.

Campaigners have collected nearly 3,000 signatures to force the council to issue the abatement notice, which could require Yorkshire Water to reduce its operations at Saltend.

The notice requires Yorkshire Water to prevent odours escaping from the plant, and failure to comply without reasonable excuse is considered a criminal offence.

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.”

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 wastewater 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.”