A water firm has vowed to clamp down on bad smells coming out of one of its sewage plants.

Southern Water is working to reduce odours at Newhaven treatment works, which deals with 12 million litres of wastewater a day.

Sealed skips are being brought in to transport sludge from the works in Beach Road.

Sludge is waste that has been removed during the treatment process. It is converted into organic agricultural fertiliser at another site.

The measures to improve smells are costing the company £450,000. The odour control system is being upgraded and a sludge holding tank is being taken out of use.

Work will begin this week and sealed skips will be introduced in January.

Paul Kent, sludge strategy manager, said: "We acknowledge there have been problems at the plant. Because of the nature of what we deal with there is always the possibility of smells at our works.

"We are working hard to ensure odours are controlled and contained at all times and hope this will benefit the people in the area served by the works.

"The new metal skips are designed to prevent smells escaping and taking the holding tank out of use means less chance for the odours to be released. These measures, together with the replacement of the odour control plant, will represent a significant improvement to the works."

The project is being carried out for Southern Water by 4Delivery Ltd (4D).

Thursday November 3 2005