§ The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael)On 23 December 2002 the Government published a consultation on proposals for the control of odour and other nuisances from sewage treatment works. This included an option for a voluntary code of practice.
Incidents of odour problems are relatively few compared with the number of sewage works throughout England and Wales, but when problems do occur they can have a significant and prolonged impact on local residents. For this reason an apparent lack of effective enforcement had to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The outcome of the consultation supports the use of the statutory nuisance regime to resolve such problems. I have today placed in the Libraries of both Houses a summary report of the responses to the consultation.
In addition the position has been clarified by a recent High Court judgment which confirms that odours from sewage treatment works can be considered as a statutory 25WS nuisance within the terms of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. As a consequence, local authorities have both a duty to investigate such a problem and corresponding enforcement powers. This means that abatement notices can be used to resolve long-term problems of odour from sewage treatment works. An appeal against this ruling has now been withdrawn.
The consequence of the High Court decision is that we have a statutory tool to address sewage odour. The Government therefore propose to drop the reference to a "voluntary" code, a throwback from when the code was envisaged as an interim measure in the absence of a statutory regime. The code will equally address concerns raised within the responses to the consultation that the application of the statutory nuisance regime may lead to inconsistencies in its application and increased uncertainty for the sewage industry. Therefore, the Government are asking the sewage industry, its regulatory and professional bodies and organisations representing customers, the public and local authorities to co-operate in the production of a code of practice that will provide advice and guidance to support the successful resolution of odour problems from sewage treatment works. A draft code is to be the subject of full public consultation in summer 2004, and should be published by late 2004. Ofwat has indicated it will lend its weight to the code.