FAMILIES from Marske and the Ings estate, in Redcar, have complained about the smell from a new sewage treatment works.

Their complaints have been passed to Northumbrian Water by local councillors.

But according to Councillor Joyce Benbow, who represents the West Dyke ward of Redcar, the company has failed in its promise to keep the public informed of what is happening.

She said: "The information has amounted to one leaflet drop and an odour as bad as ever.

"As one resident said, it quite puts you off your barbecue. Even keeping windows shut in the warm weather has not helped at all."

Andrew Panting, head of communications at Northumbrian Water, said a fault had been found in one of four lanes used at the treatment works.

He said: "We must apologise to the people who live in the area of the treatment works, and we are very disappointed that this fault should have developed in our new treatment works."

He said contractors were fixing the fault, and they were aiming to get the works back to normal as quickly as possible.

"We will need to make sure that the defect does not happen in the other three lanes in the works, but we are looking at doing that later in the year, outside of the hot weather period," he said.