Residents in Skegness ready to kick up stink over smells

Julie Smith, of Alexandra Road, is considering starting a petition after she was driven to complain on social media and it attracted more than 50 comments.

For months Mrs Smith has been keeping a smell diary for East Lindsey District Council regarding the nearby abattoir run by Yorkshire Country Meats.

But with the hot and humid late summer days she says she is now suffering a double whammy with smells from surrounding fields that are being sprayed for winter crops.

She said: “I’ve been down here for 12 years and it’s never been this bad. I was walking through the railway station the other day and a visitor who had just got off the train asked ‘what’s that smell?’. I said, ‘It’s the abattoir. There are times it has got so bad I’ve been sick.

“When I complained on Facebook it was after there had been spraying on the fields and that is just adding to it. Last year I spent £3,000 on my garden and I haven’t been able to sit in it. My husband has just put in a landing window but I can’t open it because of the smells.”

Son-in-law Grant Smith trains at Skegness Freestyle Kickboxing gym and says they haven’t been able to open the shutters: “We’d rather put up with the smell from sweaty bodies than what’s outside.”

Last month East Lindsey District Council confirmed it was investigating after receiving 17 complaints about smells from the Heath Road area, where the abattoir is situated.

This week a spokesman said: “There appear to be two issues of odour in the Skegness area at the moment – one related to muck spreading and one related to the slaughterhouse.

“The muck spreading is being done in line with the recommended code of practice. A number of people have contacted the council in respect of an odour on the Industrial Estate that they believe to be linked to the slaughterhouse.

“The council is working with the slaughterhouse to minimise the impact of any odours. Residents who have raised concerns have been asked to complete an odour diary so we can investigate.”

Yorkshire Country Meats, which runs the Heath Road abattoir, declined to comment.