RESIDENTS of Widnes kicked up a stink with Halton Council this week when a nauseous aroma prompted a flood of complaints to the council's environmental department.

People living in the Halton View area of the town were assailed by a stench for much of Wednesday, which they blamed on the Shell Green sludge incinerator.

Halton Council was besieged with complaints about the smell and sent environmental officers to investigate.

It emerged that local farmers had been given sludge from Shell Green free of charge to spread on their fields.

A council spokesperson confirmed that the smell was caused by sludge which had been spread on farm fields in St Helens, just over the boundary from Halton.

He said: "Environmental health officers visited the site and the problem seems to have arisen because the sludge was not ploughed into the fields immediately and, accompanied with an unusual wind direction and warmer than expected weather, caused an unpleasant smell."

The council had reached an agreement with the offending muck-spreader that he would plough the sludge into the ground as soon as it was spread.

Council officers would be monitoring the situation, the spokesman added.

Helen Lord, of North West Water, which owns the sludge processing plant, said: "It was nothing to do with the Shell Green plant itself."

She confirmed that Shell Green does provide sludge free to farmers, and transport it free-of-charge also.

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