'Spondon Pong' smell worse than ever say villagers

Something needs to be done according to a councillor for a village plagued by the stench of "rotting meat and fish".

The so-called "Spondon Pong" is a long-running issue in the east of Derby, and residents said the smell this year is as bad as it's ever been and people are having to keep their windows closed.

Ward councillor Jonathan Smale told the BBC the smell at the beginning of June had made his stomach "curdle a little bit" and called on villagers to report the pong to Severn Trent and the Environmental Agency.

Severn Trent, which operates a food waste and green gas plant in Megaloughton Lane, said the smells were due to "liming" activity which it had now paused.

Smale said the smell had been a real issue for the past 18 months but in the past fortnight the situation escalated.

He said: "Last year it came in quite prominently but it was for a very short window and we had a good spell of no smells.

"But this year it's come back and it's got to the point now where, we can put up with most things but it's time for either the Environmental Agency to act, or Severn Trent to do some more mitigating factors.

"This is the smell of rotting meat, fish, it's not a pleasant smell. We know the Severn Trent works have been here a long time and we do expect to get some smells but you could smell it in the heart of the village yesterday which is quite some distance back."

Leah Fry, head of bioresources at Severn Trent, said it had been undertaking "liming" in Spondon: "This is part of the biosolids treatment process where quicklime is added to the biosolids to ensure it is safe to be applied to agricultural land.

"Due to the chemical reaction involved, this can produce an odour and in order to minimise any inconvenience as a result, we try to do this as infrequently as possible however to reduce any further impact, we have paused this activity while we evaluate alternative treatments."

A spokesperson from the Environment Agency, which visited the Severn Trent site on Wednesday, said it was investigating "multiple reports of odour" in Spondon and urged members to the public to report concerns to its hotline.

They said: "All reports of odour are taken very seriously as we understand the impact that it can have on communities."

Residents in the centre of Spondon on Wednesday said they had experienced the brunt of the odours recently.

Wendy Betesta said it was impossible to get fresh air at her home in Spondon earlier this week.

The 65-year-old said: "It's been a very fishy smell, everywhere, to the point where you've got to keep your windows closed.

"This is the worst it's ever been. My sister-in-law lives down Elvaston and she said the same, it's just not nice at all."

Fishmonger Ivelina Kotseva, 33, has said customers sometimes mention the smell when they visit Little Catch in the village.

She said: "It's a strong smell in here, but when you go outside you notice it.

"It's like a river smell, dirty water."

Ruth Rivers, 64, said the smell was like "ammonia and fish" and said: "It's not very pleasant, it's horrible.

"I would agree it's the worst it's ever been, in the mornings maybe."

Keith Eaglesfield, 74, said: "We get that smell from time to time, not all the time, but when we get it, it's a fishy sort of smell.

"It's not great if somebody has come to view houses, that sort of thing. When I first moved back, I thought the drains might have been blocked, but it doesn't put me off my dinner."

Barbara Morris, 85, said: "You get the occasional smell, when it smells like the farmer's been spraying his fields.

"My son-in-law calls it Smelly Spondon but he doesn't live here."

But Joyce Morris, 89, said Spondon has always had a distinctive odour.

She said: "When I was at school we always thought it was the Celanese, during the war it was a munitions factory.

"But it's never bothered me, maybe I've just got a bad sense of smell."

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