THE PONG is back - and motoring giant Ford is holding up its hands and admitting: "Yes, it's us again."

It was back in February that the mystery whiff which had been getting up the noses of Eastleigh and Southampton residents was finally solved.

The smell - like a damp odour - was traced to the Ford plant at Swaythling and the company immediately issued a public apology.

The smell - dubbed "Le Pong" following a theory that it came from France - was finally tracked down by city environmental health bosses working with engineers at the plant.

A specially trained team from Germany was also flown in by the motor giant to try and track down the source of the nasty smell that had been plaguing residents across the south since November last year.

Eventually, they traced the source of the odour to a new cleaning system at Ford's plant. Anaerobic bacteria living in a water cleaning system were producing the smell - which was killed off within 24 hours.

Today, a Ford spokesman said they were again aware of a smell from the Swaythling plant.

"It is a form of bacteria in the cleaning system in the paint shop. We had this issue a few months ago and worked with environmental health officials in Southampton to track the smell."

He added: "It is a harmless bacteria but creates a fairly nasty smell."

The Ford spokesman said the company currently had a couple of engineers from Germany on site and hoped to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

But he said Ford also wanted to check why the smell had come back.

A council spokesman said: "The city council's environmental health department are aware of the issue and are in discussion with the Ford motor company to resolve the smell as soon as possible."