Yorkshire Water Smells - Confident of a solution after residents declare 'Enough is Enough!'

Campaigners - Jamie Cook, Debbie Taylor Peacock and Jo Gardner

THE CAMPAIGN against Yorkshire Water's smells from its Waste Water Treatment Works has certainly captured the local mood of opposition that exists in both East Hull and South West Holderness.

After eleven years of 'putting-up' with unpleasant odours then the recent weeks of penetrating, foul smells from the Saltend site - spuriously accredited to the "Pea Harvest" - has been the last straw! The reaction has been 'Enough is Enough! No more!'.

Different campaigns starting independently have captured the imagination of residents and there is an emerging confidence that this time the matter will be sorted once and for all. HU12 reported on the petition launched by the Hedon Blog. At that time we were unaware of other resident campaigns being established.

On the same day that Hedon residents were lobbying their Town Councillors for support, Jo Gardner of Paull was contacting the local BBC Radio Humberside on behalf of angry residents in the village. Debbie Taylor Peacock from the GRIN Community Group (Greatfield Residents Improving their Neighbourhood) was gearing up to tackle the smells in Hull while Jamie Cook was setting up the Facebook Protest Group Yorkshire water needs to sort the smell out.

In one week of campaigning over 800 people have signed the online petition. Shops and businesses have stocked up with copies of petitions. Hundreds more signatures are being collected by those who have simply printed off the petition form and approached their friends and neighbours to sign. The campaign has been featured on Radio, TV and the Hull Mail - and in a form of action called 'crowd-sourcing' Facebook has been used to encourage people to meet up, show their support and sign the petition.

Showing the willingness of people to think of this as a longer term campaign, residents in Paull are making a skunk costume which will act as a 'mascot' during future activities.

Up until now the campaign has taken on a spontaneous nature - but from Tuesday 9th August it is expected that an organising group for the campaign will be set up which will help drive the campaign forward.

The East Riding Council admitted last week that they have received an unprecedented number of complaints on the issue of Yorkshire Water's Smells. This is in contrast to the findings of a council report in July 2010 that said "there is no evidence that significant odours from Hull WwTW are reaching Hedon or Preston to the point that a statutory odour nuisance is being or likely to be caused." and "no officer during any odour assessment concluded that a statutory odour nuisance existed at the time of the assessment". 

In the past 11 years people have become tolerant to underlying odours from the site. They have been reluctant to report the smells for a variety of reasons. Many did not know who to complain to. Others became cynical believing that complaining was not worthwhile, it would not make any difference. Others running businesses or services in the area were also probably concerned that making complaints would draw attention to an unsavoury problem that might undermine those businesses or services.

People seem to have regained the confidence to complain! Those complaints and the hundreds that are signing the petitions and organising against the smells are making a difference! The petition will be presented to the East Riding Council's Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny sub-committee on Wednesday 21st September 2011.