Heated debate over Caister pong and no nearer to finding cause
The Anglia Water Sewage treatment works off the Caister By-pass in Caister, Norfolk. Picture: Steve Parsons Copy: Liz Coates For : GYM � EDP pics 2004 Tel: (01603) 772434 - Credit: EDP pics � 2003 (01603) 772434
Pong-plagued residents in Caister say a meeting with the utility company has bought them no closer to a resolution and only heightened their frustration.
Two representatives from Anglian Water and one from Great Yarmouth Borough Council attended Caister parish council meeting on Monday to listen to local concerns and explain their position.
Parish council chairman Tony Baker said villagers had been bothered by unpleasant odours from the sewage treatment works in West Caister for years with various measures failing to combat the issue.
He said the problem seemed to have worsened since last summer when people began keeping 'stink diaries' and logging every incident.
However the dates presented did not seem to correlate to anything happening at the site, it emerged.
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Mr Baker said despite 'heated debate' the meeting was 'a waste of time' with little acknowledgment from Anglian Water over the scale of the problem.
'There was quite a heated debate and what came out of that was that Anglian Water had no answer as to what was causing it. They explained how the system worked but did not admit there was a problem, but they must have been persuaded there was one by the number of people who were there - and some of them were quite vociferous. Really it was one hour of my life wasted.
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'I have had emails over Christmas and there is a theory it is worse at the end of holiday periods although I have not seen any evidence of that.
'I think it depends on the weather and whether the pumping station is overloaded.'
Mr Baker said there was no positive feedback after the meeting from the 20 or so people who turned out although there was praise for David Addy of the borough council who was supportive.
'I am very disillusioned,' Mr Baker added.
An Anglian Water spokesperson said: 'We want to be a good neighbour and residents at the meeting raised concerns about odour from the site.
'We will continue to monitor and mitigate the odours from Caister water recycling centre, by using the odour supressing and monitoring equipment on site. Residents who notice unpleasant smells can contact us through Facebook, Twitter or our customer services number 03457 145 145 with the location of where they smelt the odour, time and date.'
A post on the parish council's Facebook page said the disappointing response was not one the council could accept.
