DOZENS of odour complaints are made every year across Essex.

They can range from the predictable to the downright strange.

Be it is the smell of animals, dog mess or cannabis our councils deals with smell complaints on a daily basis.

Home fragrance experts at Lifestyle Packaging asked every council in the UK how many nuisance smell complaints they received from local residents between 2015-2019.

During that time 116,789 complaints from councils which had a combined population that totalled 58,343,740.

This means in the last five years, 1 in every 500 UK residents has submitted a smell complaint to their council.

The more unusual complaints included a bacon smokery in Braintree, paint spraying in Castle Point and a filthy property in Tendring.

Here we take a look at the complaints made across Essex.

Basildon

Total complaints: 458

Most common complaint: Dog mess

Braintree

Total complaints: 60

Most common complaint: Cannabis

Most unusual complaint: Bacon smokery

Castle Point

Total complaints: 222

Most common complaint: Smoke

Most unusual complaint: Paint spraying

Chelmsford

Total complaints: 879

Most common complaint: unspecified odour

Colchester

Total complaints: 397

Most common complaint: Odours/fumes commercial

Maldon

Total complaints: 85

Most common complaint: Muck spreading

Rochford

Total complaints: 50

Most common complaint: Food

Southend

Total complaints: 873

Most common complaint: Domestic smoke

Tendring

Total complaints: 100

Most common complaint: Animals

Most unusual complaint: Filthy/verminous property

The ten smelliest places to live in the UK

  1. Bassetlaw
  2. City of London
  3. Westminster
  4. North West Leicestershire
  5. Chichester
  6. Ashford
  7. North Norfolk
  8. Teignbridge
  9. Swansea
  10. West Lancashire

Bassetlaw in North Nottinghamshire scored highly with an average of one complaint for every 62 residents in the last five years.

Bassetlaw’s main gripes were commercial premises and industrial smells.

The City of London’s 8,700 permanent residents issued one complaint per 74 inhabitants.

City of London residents were mostly concerned with the smell of commercial operations near their homes.

One resident complained particularly about ongoing ‘painting work’.

To read the full report click here