BOSSES at a sewage treatment plant have been ordered to stop the vile stench which is filling homes and businesses in the area.

Southend Council has issued Anglian Water – which manages the sewage plant in Stock Road –an “abatement notice” ordering them to reduce the stink from the site by October 31, 2024.

The notice follows a three-year council investigation and “requests Anglian Water Services Limited to abate and prohibit the recurrence of the smell”.

On Tuesday, councillors at a place scrutiny committee debated Southend’s “nuisance strategy” aimed at reducing noise and disturbances blighting residents’ lives.

Lydia Hyde, Labour councillor for St Laurence Ward, said: “We think about sound nuisance but one particular concern in Southend is around nuisance odours from the sewage works. Since I’ve been elected I’ve been working closely with my colleague councillor Cowan thinking about ways to address concerns about nuisance odours from the sewage works. How successful has that engagement been? Are we seeking ways to eliminate some of the odours we’ve had over the years?”

Elizabeth Georgeou, head of regulatory services, responded: “We’ve served an abatement notice on the treatment plant.

“Because of the amount of work that needs to be done, it’s a massive investment, we are bound to give them a considerable period of time to comply and we are in that period at the moment.”

According to Daniel Cowan, leader of Southend Council’s Labour group, the stink from the plant has been blighting residents and businesses nearby for “quite some time”.

Speaking after the meeting, he said: “There’s been an issue in the area that’s affected residents of St Lukes, St Laurence and bits of Prittlewell for quite some time. It took a number of years of very carefully collecting complaints and reports of nuisance odours. Last year, after a painstaking investigation, the council served an abatement notice on Stock Road and Anglian Water.”

Mr Cowan added: “Anglian Water have announced they are making significant investments in a number of their waste treatment solutions and waste odour suppression technologies and we’re just hoping that’s going to improve things for local residents as well as all the people who work around Stock Road because it can’t be pleasant for them either.”