Plans for equipment to improve smells from a vegetable processing plant run by the family of a Leicestershire MP have been approved.
BBC News has reported that Leicestershire County Council has agreed plans for an anaerobic digestion plant at AB Produce in Measham, of which MP Andrew Bridgen is a shareholder.
Campaign Against The Smell (CATS), which has fought to tackle the issue for several years, said the smell was strong enough to make eyes water and throats sore. It is caused by waste water from the vegetable preparation process.
The anaerobic digestion plant will be a large cylinder-shaped tank which will cost £2.2 million to install, but will produce renewable energy used to power the factory.
Standing about 15m (50ft) high to the south west of the factory, there were concerns about the visual impact it would have on the Measham area.Plans for a new potato storage and technical building were also approved.
Matthew Parker, environmental operations manager for AB Produce, thanked the council and local residents for their support.
He said they were going to get started with the paperwork, and hoped that work on the building could then start as soon as possible.
Michael Williams, Measham parish councillor and CATS campaign coordinator, told BBC News that the group was 'cautiously optimistic', but 'remained sceptical'.
'Even if all works well, the smell is not going to clear up overnight and no-one has told us of timescales for when we should see some improvement,' he added.
'So for now, we continue to monitor and report smells in the hope that a summer one year soon we will be free of the smell.'
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