Rotten stench has gone on long enough

UNSUIT. FILENAME. RENAMED. Anna Wallis, Wanganui Chronicle Assistant Editor 25 October 2012 Wanganui Chronicle Photograph by Stuart Munro

A TRIP along Heads Rd last Friday night reminded me of being sent to pluck sheep in high summer as a child.

The greener, more maggot-infested the carcase, the easier the wool came off. The pocket money came in handy but the smell left you gagging.

On Friday night it seemed as if a giant rotting sheep was just round the corner. Instead, it was Imlay.

I'm not sure what Gonville has done in a past life to earn this kind of malodorous treatment. First it took a full hit on the wastewater stink and now this.

And while it was good to see Horizons Regional Council on the job immediately last week, I can't recall the gusty wind making it "there one minute and gone the next". It was pretty much there all the time; the wind just meant a whiff of even more intense foul-smelling stuff was whipped up.

I'm not sure how it's affecting people's health, and given that the smell seemed to start just before the hospital it's a lot of people breathing in foul air.

Between January 9 and 16, 13 odour complaints were made to Horizons. Those smells were caused by a sump pump in the raw bin area not working, and by "expired" heads and hocks sent to the rendering plant.

Money must be spent to fix this problem and hopefully Affco have thrown everything at this malfunction to stop the smell once and for all. Or else don't accept rotting material, or treat it to disguise the smell.

As a comment on the Chronicle website said: "This is 2015. This is wrong in every way".