Published: Thursday, 24th July, 2008 11:10
Garage owner kicks up a stink
By Peter Swindon
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A used car salesman says the stink coming from a nearby sewerage plant is driving customers away.
Alex Campbell runs North Road Garage in Kelty, which sits next to a Scottish Water waste station.
Not only do staff and customers have to put up with the smell, they’ve also suffered an infestation of rats.
“It’s stinking, absolutely disgusting,” said Mr Campbell, “and a total and utter eyesore. The state of the place is absolutely scandalous. We’ve even had rats.
“I think it’s putting off my customers. When folk come in they always ask what the smell is.”
Mr Campbell has been in touch with Scottish Water several times.
“I’ve contacted them I don’t know how many times,” he said. “I’ve spoken to politicians who have written to Scottish Water. Still nothing’s been done.
“I just want the place cleaned up. I actually don’t have a problem with the sewage works being there,but I’ve got a problem with the smell and the vermin.”
Councillor Alex Rowley has written to Scottish Water Chief Executive Richard Ackroyd.
“I have asked him to intervene to have the property and works owned and run by Scottish Water at Great North Road Kelty cleaned up,” he explained.
“In recent years the works have been overrun with vermin. This has caused untold problems for North Road Garage who have had to deploy their own vermin control and spend money trying to remove the smell coming towards their site.”
A Scottish Water spokesman apologised for the odour and said “adverse weather” was to blame.
He told the Times: “The storm tanks at Kelty pumping station have had to contend with extra volumes of waste water. To combat this increased volume we have arranged for the tanks to be emptied this week and we will continue to monitor the situation.
“There is a project in place to replace one of the siphons on the site that carries away the waste. This will increase future capacity and will help to remove the odour issue at the site.”
He added: “All Scottish Water sites have strict pest control measures in place. Vermin control inspectors regularly visit the site to monitor the situation and will be on site this week.”
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