Last updated 17/04/2026
Latest information and reporting details for environmental smells in Tiverton, Devon
This page is intended to help residents quickly find the latest public update and the correct routes for reporting any smell they experience.
Please report every incident to both Mid Devon Environmental Health and South West Water. Reporting to both helps build an evidence base and ensures the water company also logs and reviews what residents are experiencing.
Latest update
What residents have been told so far
Environmental Health has received a substantial number of reports about smells affecting parts of Tiverton. Focused reporting in October helped officers compare residents’ reports by date, time, location, odour type and weather conditions. The reports were spread across a number of streets and were broadly similar in character, with fishy, sewage, foul and decaying-type smells appearing most often.
Officers have also visited the South West Water treatment works at Collipriest. A visit in October found the lime treatment process particularly pungent, with a fish-like smell on the day, and a later visit in December raised further questions about lime deliveries, sludge imports from Bude and possible mitigation. Environmental Health’s working view is that liming may be one source of the odour, but that has not been proven definitively, and South West Water still has outstanding questions to answer, including a requested odour risk assessment.
Please report every incident. The more precise the information, the more useful it is. It is especially helpful to include whether you had just returned home when you noticed the smell, or whether the smell newly appeared while you were already there.
Please report to both
How to report a smell
1. Report to Mid Devon Environmental Health
Mid Devon has previously asked affected residents to use nuisance diary sheets so officers can compare reports properly and investigate patterns. A pre-filled version including the case reference 25/00880/POLNOX is available below.
1
Download the diary sheet
2
Complete it as fully as you can
Include dates, times, place, description, weather, whether you had just returned home or noticed the smell first appear, and how the smell affected you.
3
Return it
You can return completed sheets to a local councillor, to Mid Devon’s offices, or by email to Health@middevon.gov.uk.
2. Report to South West Water
If you wish to report the issue to South West Water, use their formal reporting route so that the concern is properly logged, tracked and reviewed.
1
Report online
southwestwater.co.uk/report-a-problem
Choose Other when prompted.
2
Or report by phone
Call 0344 346 2020.
Why report to both?
Mid Devon Environmental Health needs evidence to assess nuisance reports, and South West Water needs direct customer reports through its own system. Doing both gives the best chance of building a clear picture.
Mid Devon Environmental Health needs evidence to assess nuisance reports, and South West Water needs direct customer reports through its own system. Doing both gives the best chance of building a clear picture.
What to include
Example of the basic information that helps most
- Date and time: when you noticed the smell, and how long it lasted.
- Place: street name, nearby landmark, or as exact a location as possible.
- Description: for example fishy, sewage, chemical, rotten food, dead animals, or something else.
- Weather: whether it was dry, still, damp, misty, windy, warm, cold, and so on.
- What you noticed: whether you had just returned home and then noticed it, or whether it began while you were already there.
- Effect on you: for example needing to close windows, avoid the garden, feeling unwell, or disturbance to normal enjoyment of your home.
Contacts
Local district councillors and MP
These are the contact details for the Mid Devon District councillors for the Tiverton wards most directly affected, and the local MP.
Tiverton Westexe
Tiverton Cranmore
Tiverton Castle
Tiverton Lowman
Member of Parliament
Quick contact details