Reporting Smells

Over the years Milton residents have reported the unwelcome smell from the Sewage Works, now much improved, and for a while we also suffered from smells from the Landfill Site and the Household Waste Recycling Centre to the west and north west. Remember we do live on the edge of farmland, and like all rural dwellers we may sometimes get smells from the fields when they are spreading manure etc.

If the smell is definitely from the Sewage Works you should contact Anglian Water on their hotline 03457 145145. Say that the smell is from the Cambridge Water Recycling Centre, Cowley Road and quote the Anglian Water ‘shortcode’ for the site, which is CAMBST.

The other sources are regulated by the Environment Agency.

  1. Ring the EA Hotline on 0800 80 70 60. You will speak to a real person, and they have been answering quite quickly. They may send someone out straight away, so don’t wait to report the smell.
  2. You will be asked for your name, address and a contact number.
  3. You will be asked where you think the smell is coming from. Don’t guess, but give as much information as you can about the nature of the smell. To the west of the village, Milton Landfill Site and the Household Waste Recycling Centre are on Butt Lane, Milton. The postcode for both is CB24 6DQ. If you think the smell is coming from the south, give the address Cambridge Water Recycling Centre, Cowley Road. If the wind is from the NW, you may be smelling the recycling centre at Landbeach on the A10 (Amey Cespa).
    Current wind speed
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    It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the wind direction, call the Environment Agency anyway.

  4. You will be asked to rate the smell 1 – 6 (6 being the worst)
  5. You will be asked for any other details, impacts on your life such as any feelings of nausea or headache, if you had to close windows or if you were woken up at night
  6. Please make a note of your Incident Number.
  7. You can also ask to be kept informed of progress with tracking down the problem.
  8. Please also log the Incident Number on the (very quick) ‘Village log’ at this link:
  9.  For reasons of confidentiality, the EA cannot always share their data with us, so this log enables the working group in Milton to track how many people are reporting incidents to the EA. South Cambridgeshire District Council also said they would find this logged data extremely helpful when investigating odour incidents.

We need your help to prove that residents are experiencing these odours, so your participation is vital to improving the environment in Milton. If you have already reported odours to the Ponglog and/or the Environment Agency, THANK YOU. Please keep reporting and logging! The smells come and go and it is important that we record every occurrence.

If you are a resident of Milton Village, affected by smells and want specific updates from the Milton Air Quality Working Party, please email your contact details to hazel.smith@miltonvillage.org.uk or call her on 01223 860752.

Please give your name, address and email address. You can give your telephone number if you’d like one of us to call you, but this is optional.