Anglian Water to tackle 'Benfleet Stink' sewer problem
A water company is to spend £350,000 on improving an Essex town's sewers after two years of complaints about a persistent foul smell.
Anglian Water will re-line broken pipes and upgrade outlets, pumps and sludge tanks to prevent overflowing sewage to tackle the so-called "Benfleet Stink".
Residents organised a petition calling on the utility company to fix the town's sewers.
It is expected the work will take six months to complete.
Anglian Water spokesman, John Clare, said: "We've been aware of the problem for a while and have been trying to fix it.
'Quality of life'
"I appreciate it may not have happened as quickly as some people would like, and we're sorry about that.
"But part of the problem has come from the fact that a lot of the equipment and parts have to be built to order, which does take some time."
Conservative Castle Point MP, Rebecca Harris, said the smell had been affecting the quality of life of people living in the Richmond Park area of the town.
She said: "You normally think about quality of life issues being things like noise nuisance or anti-social behaviour.
"It's quite unusual for an MP to have people come to you saying they can't enjoy their gardens, so I think it's very good they're finally getting to the bottom of this and sorting it out."