THAMES Water has put the finishing touches to machinery at the Little Marlow Sewage Works which they hope will give some welcome relief to residents fed up with strong smells.

Bosses at Thames Water, which owns the £25million plant, previously said they hoped to reduce the levels of strong odours by mid-July while carrying out work on their bio-filters.

These will reduce the smells wafting into Little Marlow and Spade Oak, where opposition to the works has been common since the smells started escalating.

On July 1, the company finished upgrading two bio-filters by refurbishing one and extending another to make it bigger to cope with a larger amount of odours.

But the company has now told residents that they are looking at around a July 20 date for the filters to become fully effective and for the smell levels to drop substantially.

A Thames Water spokesman said: "We will be monitoring the filters and they are improving in terms of their performance.

The spokesman added: "But it takes time to work to full performance it is like running a car."

Thames Water said it would also be looking to conduct a survey of the works to make sure they knew where smells were coming from and whether the filters were working.

But Chris Taylor, from the Spade Oak Residents Association, said that while he was happy they were being kept up to date on progress, he said residents were unsure of their latest promise.

He said: "This has caused a great amount of distress, not just to residents in Spade Oak Reach, but also Bourne End and other areas.

"I am concerned that the people doing this survey are from a company owned by Thames Water."

Thames Water said while the survey would be carried out by a group within the company, they needed the survey so they could find "hard, specific evidence" to see where the smells were coming from. They said this is so they can pinpoint the problems and rectify them.

However, they said a second survey of the composting operations would be carried out by an independent company.

If you have any problems with the smells, you can contact the plant on customer.feedback@thameswater.co.uk.