Unpleasant odour '˜affecting thousands' in Crawley

Thousands of people in Crawley have been left reeling from an obnoxious smell wafting over the town.
Fields in Ifield are being spread with muck causing an obnoxious odour to waft over Crawley SUS-180608-160649001Fields in Ifield are being spread with muck causing an obnoxious odour to waft over Crawley SUS-180608-160649001
Fields in Ifield are being spread with muck causing an obnoxious odour to waft over Crawley SUS-180608-160649001

The nasty niff is originating from fields in Ifield but has been smelt by people as far north as Gatwick Airport and to the south in Gossops Green.

Now Crawley borough councillor Geraint Thomas has written to the landowners - Homes England - asking them to investigate.

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Geraint, cabinet member for the environment, says that the unpleasant odour has been plaguing the town every August for around the last 10 years.

Geraint ThomasGeraint Thomas
Geraint Thomas

He says the problem occurs when a ‘cake’ made from human sewage is spread over the land annually by a local farmer. The smell is ‘impossible to escape from 24 hours a day,’ he said.

But, he said, neither Crawley nor Horsham councils had powers to deal with the matter.

Now he is calling on Homes England to investigate ‘as a matter of urgency.’

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“This affects thousands of Crawley residents on more or less an annual basis,” he said. “It is not ‘the price you pay for living in or close to the countryside’ or if it is it is an unacceptable one.”

He said the muck-spreading was “unneighbourly behaviour which should not be repeated.”

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