A BIG stink is being kicked up over sewage works blighting a community with a pungent pong.

The putrid whiff wafting from the dated 1960s Woolston plant is sometimes so bad people living and working nearby say it makes them queasy.

But agents working for Southern Water, who run the plant, have revealed it could cost up to £75m to quell the smell once and for all.

Community leaders are now calling for the pong to be banished before completion of the residential regeneration of Centenary Quay after the closure of the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard.

This comes amid fears the project will strain the dated sewage works and worsen the whiff – and even deter people from moving to the riverside location.

One shop owner told the Daily Echo how the smell was so severe on one occasion that customers walked out and she was forced to shut.

Jade Ball-Smith, 31, who runs A1 Carpets, in Victoria Road, Woolston, said: “It was making me gag too.”

Sharon Wilkinson, who runs the nearby Fun Shack party shop, said the smell could be “horrendous” at times.

She said: “Sometimes it smells in the shop. It’s appalling. When they were doing the development I assumed they would get rid of the sewage works. I don’t think they should be building those new houses with that sort of smell.”

Councillor Warwick Payne, labour ward councillor for Woolston, said: “This isn’t the Middle Ages so it isn’t acceptable to stink out a residential area anymore.

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“We need a 21st century site with minimal odour.”

Agents working for the water firm told Cllr Payne at a briefing with concerned locals that modernising the plant carried a multi-million price tag.

Cllr Payne said: “Southern Water realises the Woolston works are out of date and the smell coming out of them is arguably worse.”

Woolston Community Association chairman Val Lloyd said: “It has been an issue for years but it’s getting worse and can be quite overpowering and unpleasant to put up with.

“Everybody in the area is concerned about it, but people don’t know what to do. I think we need new investment.”

Southern Water said it was now considering options worth “tens of millions”

to curb the stink.

Spokesman Leilah Nicola said: “When we decide which scheme to take forward, we will submit a proposal to our financial regulator Ofwat for funding approval, and to the local authority for planning permission. We’ll be holding a public exhibition to update customers on our proposals and will be liaIsing with them throughout.”