Sewage works bosses have found a novel way to mask the pong of their delivery trucks - "bubblegum".

A scent, which smells like bubblegum, is being used to spray the wheels of lorries leaving the plant in a bid to hide the stench of slurry for nearby residents.

The scheme was brought in after people living either side of the River Wear in Sunderland complained about the stench of waste coming from the works at the Port of Sunderland in Hendon.

The Northumbrian Water facility processes between 90 and 100 tonnes of sludge a day, which is then sent to Teesside and Newcastle.

Now a number of measures have been drafted in to tackle the problem - including the bubblegum smell.

Alec Llewellyn, sludge manager at Northumbrian Water, said that over the past three months, £5,000-worth of improvements had been made at the plant, and to wagons carrying the sludge, to reduce the risk of residents suffering from bad smells.

He said: “Concerning the smell from the wagons, we are now spraying the wheels with a bubblegum-type smell, which is done by a worker with a backpack on before the trucks leave the plant.”

At a previous meeting of East End Residents’ Community Association, at Chance Community Centre in Rickaby Street, members agreed to keep “odour diaries”, detailing times when the pongs were present in the air, so that they could be analysed to get to the root of the problem.

However, Marion Dixon, of the environmental health department at Sunderland City Council, told the latest residents’ gathering last week that there had been just one recorded instance of smells being a problem since being highlighted in August.

Mr Llewellyn added: “We have carried out internal audits and two smoke tests which we did in the plant found loads of holes or gaps which have now been filled.

“The odour extraction system has been boosted, so it is four times the size it was.”

Chairman of the meeting Shirley Williams said: “We have to say thank you, because I think that’s a great achievement, and let’s hope next year you don’t have to come back and report to us on the same kind of problems.”