VILLAGERS have been kicking up a stink over a foul smell from a nearby farm's fields.

Chester-le-Street District Council's environmental health department has received almost 100 complaints from people in Great Lumley over the smell arising from treated sewage sludge on recently harvested fields, at Lumley Grange Farm.

Villagers claim the smell became so bad that during still weather last week they prefered to remain indoors, keeping windows and doors closed.

But they have been told the spreading of the treated sludge, used as an alternative to fertiliser to add nutrients to the soil, breaches no regulations.

The good news, however, is that the worst should be over, and the smell should subside with the sludge being ploughed into the soil.

Karen Mayman, clerk to nearby Little Lumley Parish Council, said: "I live 500 yards from the farm and you literally cannot sit in your garden.

"It has been around for a few days, but it's got worse over the last couple of days.

"Some people say it makes them feel quite nauseous, but I'm assured it shouldn't be around too long."

Northumbrian Water, which supplied the sludge from its Howden treatment works on the Tyne, said, despite the smell, it was "a harmless product".

A company spokeswoman said: "It's a valuable organic product derived from sludge, as an alternative to fert- iliser.

"It's a good source of nutrients which farmers plough into their fields after harvesting."

But she said that, given the outcry in Great Lumley, the company was reconsidering which farms it would supply in future.

"It is something we have learned from this incident, and we will take it into account in future."

Peter Hopkins, a district councillor serving Great Lumley, said: "We're told it's non-harmful to humans, although the smell is pretty revolting."

He said, following talks with environmental health officials, the farmer had agreed to limit any future sludge spreading, which was only carried out normally every three years.

No one was available for comment at the farm last night.