A CONSTANT stream of heavy lorries bearing stinky sludge is making life unbearable for residents of a Bournemouth village, it is claimed.

An appeal has gone out to Wessex Water to reduce the number of tankers currently visiting the Berry Hill sludge treatment centre in Throop every day.

Currently around 40 tankers make a daily trip, a level which Throop and Muscliff councillor Ron Whittaker has branded “unacceptable”.

He has met with Wessex Water representatives and environmental health officers to discuss the problems of noise and odours associated with the lorries.

And he has followed that up with a letter to the water company, urging it to look for new, less sensitive locations for treatment centres.

“What came out of the meeting are the concerns and fears that Berry Hill is now one of the major treatment centres serving the south west and east; more so knowing that sludge is brought into Berry Hill from as far away as Weymouth,” he said. “Berry Hill has far outreached its capacity for this site and there is a clear need now for Wessex Water to look at alternative locations to prevent large tankers travelling hundreds of miles when investment needs to be made via pipelines and help towards the carbon footprint.

“What residents require now is to know when the present unacceptable tanker movements will be reduced to a more acceptable level.”

A spokesperson for Wessex Water said the increase in tanker movements was due to essential work taking place at Poole sewage treatment works.

He said: “We are working hard to minimise any impact this has had on local residents by endeavouring to complete the work at Poole as quickly as possible.

“Options are also being looked into how to reduce odour from the lorries.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this temporary arrangement has caused local residents.”