Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Human waste on aristocrat’s land causes a mighty stink
THE source of an unpleasant stench similar to rotting fish that has been wafting over the Cotswolds town of Cirencester has turned out to be human waste being spread on an aristocrat’s fields.
Cirencester Park has admitted that the smell was emanating from its land.
Countess Bathurst, of Cirencester Park, was forced to use the local Facebook page to explain that a change in wind direction had caused the problem.
The countess, wife of the 9th Earl Bathurst, said: “We have to hold our hands up to this one – the farm has been spreading biosolids on the fields for next year’s crop. They place huge nutrients back into the ground and are ploughed in once spread. They also reduce our carbon footprint, as well as saving landfill sites. If it’s any comfort we suffered just as much at home too!”
Locals have complained of feeling disgusted by the smell.
Caroline McShane said: “As someone who loves the smell of pig manure and grew up in and around farms and the country, the smell I smelt when driving through Cirencester was disgusting, enough to make you gag.
“It was a mix of rotten fish and ammonia, not a ‘natural’ farming or countryside smell.”
Janey Hayes said: “I’m born and bred here, I don’t normally bother about it, but this is vile.”
Lady Bathurst said she began noticing the smell during her evening dog walk on September 5 and “was convinced something large had died in the hedge” before realising
Apologies for the pong, it’s a necessary annual evil and the wind direction rather let us down LADY BATHURST
what it was “when the smell followed me all the way home”.
“Apologies for the pong, it’s a necessary annual evil and the wind direction rather let us down, as it completely disappeared and so we all got the full benefit,” she said.
Some residents said there was no need for an apology.
Paul King said: “It’s part of country life which we all get used to, and depending on the wind direction and strength it can sometimes be worse than others.”
The Bathurst family has run the Grade I-listed Cirencester Park estate since 1695. The 18th-century landscape park was laid out by 1st Earl Bathurst between 1714 and 1775 with the help of Alexander Pope.
The Bathurst Estate said Cirencester Park Farms Ltd had a contractor spreading treated waterworks waste on behalf of Wessex Water on the surrounding fields near Stratton.
In a statement it said: “The spreading was organised for when there was an easterly wind which would take the odour away from the town. Frustratingly the wind dropped in the night and as such the odour hung in the valleys.
“We have a tractor and cultivator working to incorporate the biosolids as quickly as possible. This will also reduce the odour.”
The estate said the recycling of biosolids had come about due to changes in the Water Framework Directive.
“In the past it was acceptable for biosolids to be taken out into the River Severn estuary and ‘let go’, but this practice was rightly banned in 1998.
“The biosolids have been treated and are of no potential harm to humans or animals.”