The chicken manure aroma was found to originate from the back of the Meole Brace Retail Park, near the New Meadow, where the new Shrewsbury Town football stadium is being built.

The smell drifted as far as Belle Vue and there were even reports of an unpleasant whiff in the town centre.

Environmental health investigators tracked the source down within half an hour of the first complaint and found a farmer was spreading chicken manure on his fields behind Sainsbury’s.

Tony Bloomfield, of Oak Street, Belle Vue, was welcomed back from his holiday by the smell.

He said: “There’s this stench all over town and this farmer is able to get away with it. You cannot put washing out. It’s really terrible.

“It smells worse than chicken manure so I do not know what else he has mixed with it. The council says there’s nothing they can do about it.”

Garry Burchett, manager of McDonald’s on the retail park, said: “There have been a few wrinkled noses and distressed looks when customers get out their cars.”

Allister Moutrie, duty manager at Sainsbury’s, said: “It has been particularly bad. It comes from the fields at the back of the retail park but it’s just a country smell. It’s not pleasant but it’s not damaging.”

David Wraith, council environmental health manager, said: “We investigated it within half an hour of complaints being made and as we arrived the farmer had three tractors on site ready to plough all the manure in.

“The guidance is that it’s ploughed within 24 hours and this one was being responded to within the hour of the manure going on the land without a request from us. The farmer has acted responsibly.

“There’s no direct action we can reasonably take,” he added.

By Rebecca Lawrence

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