Residents demand action over 'Plymouth pongs'

Residents living near two of a city's sewage treatment works are calling for action over smells they say fill their homes and prevent them from using their gardens.

People in Plympton and Cattedown are among those who said the "eggy" sewage-like pongs, which residents said had been plaguing parts of Plymouth, Devon, for years.

Locals living near South West Water's Marsh Mills wastewater treatment works claimed the smells had become worse since the development of a nearby new town, Sherford, which also uses the facility.

South West Water has set up an online tool for residents to report the odours and said it took the matter "seriously".

It said it was carrying out work at its Marsh Mills site in Plympton to "rectify operational issues", but stressed it had "sufficient capacity to treat flows from the Sherford development".

The water company added it was in "regular contact with the Sherford Consortium regarding odour concerns".

Residents, however, said more needed to be done.

Michael Hanks, 72, has lived near the Marsh Mills site since 2018. He said there were occasions when the smell was so bad his wife had "almost been physically sick".

"We're getting to the stage where we don't want to invite people to our house because they smell it and it's terrible," he said.

"Are these treatment works capable of coping with everything? I don't think they are."

Cathy Loft, 76, lives a mile (1.6km) from the Marsh Mills site and said the smell had "got enormously worse, particularly over the last three or four years".

She said: "I don't want to feel as though I'm living in sewer.

"Surely in this day and age they can make a sewerage farm that is big enough to take the sewage not only from Plympton, which is growing in size, but the nearby new town of Sherford, which has no sewerage facility.

"How can it possibly deal with all that excrement?"

Paige Williams, 17, added: "It's just disgusting. The other night I was woken up by the smell.

"Before, it used to be every now and again. Now it's every single day. It's really hard to ignore."

Nearby in Cattedown, residents living near the wastewater treatment works on Finnigan Road said they were facing similar issues.

Colleagues Stella Scallon and Poppy Beer said the area regularly smelt like "sewage" or "dead fish", often smelling the odour on their way home from work.

Samuel Lakey, 27, said the whiff was "unbearable" and "something should really be done about it".

"It's very eggy, very rotten," he said.

"Me and my dad walk down here every evening - it stinks."

Mother-of-three Jennifer Japhet, who has lived in Cattedown for the last year, added: "It's awful. It's usually every day in the morning. This is the first time I'm experiencing something like this."

Independent councillor for Plympton Erle Terri Beer said: "People are really suffering.

"House prices will start to plummet in time and people are worried, they're selling up and moving away."

She added: "If you sleep with your bedroom window open, the smell permeates into your bedroom, gets into your soft furnishings, your curtains, your bedding.

"People can't enjoy their gardens, they can't hang the washing out, they can't let their children play.

"We don't know what damage this is doing to our health here in Plympton."

Plymouth City Council has launched a separate survey asking residents and businesses across Plymouth to share their experiences of the persistent odours, helping them to "better understand the location, frequency and impact".

Once the survey closed, the findings would be presented to the council's Natural Infrastructure and Growth Scrutiny Panel, with South West Water invited to attend a scrutiny meeting on the subject, the council said.

MP Luke Pollard said: "The more reports that are submitted, the stronger the evidence and the greater the pressure on South West Water to deliver a lasting solution."

A spokesperson for South West Water said it took complaints about odour seriously and its "customers and the environment are important to us".

They said work to rectify "operational issues" at Marsh Mills were focused on "protecting the environment, reducing odours, and preventing similar issues occurring in the future".

This involved removing sludge from the site for treatment elsewhere, the company said.

It added: "Our site at Marsh Mills has sufficient capacity to treat flows from the Sherford development.

"We remain in regular contact with the Sherford Consortium regarding odour concerns and continue to review progress and effectiveness of measures being implemented by them on their site.

"We are also aware of reports from other parts of Plymouth, including around Cattedown. As smells can originate from a range of sources, we have contacted nearby residents with details of how they can report odours to help us investigate what residents are experiencing across the area.

"We encourage anyone experiencing persistent odour issues to use our online reporting tool, as this helps us identify patterns and target our investigations.

"We understand the frustration this is causing and remain committed to understanding the causes and taking action where required."

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