Sewage works in Stambridge are being allowed to operate without a licence until the end of the year.

Environment Agency bosses have consistently refused to explain to the public why there is a delay in issuing a licence.

They still insist the site is safe and say that is why they have given temporary permission to Anglian Water to start up the treatment works.

A waste management licence allows the Agency to set strict safety conditions for work, and to prosecute the firm or shut down the site if those conditions are not met.

Without the licence, those safeguards do not exist. The decision has angered the community and Conservative county councillor Tracey Chapman.

She said: "Without a licence the community has no protection. We have heard time after time after time that they are going to issue a licence.

"How can they be satisfied everything is okay when they can't issue a licence? To say I am very angry is an understatement.

"The Environment Agency has a duty to the community not just Anglian Water. They have got to get their act together."

But Agency spokeswoman Sara Wright said: "We are not saying they can operate and we have no powers. We can take away permission at any time if we feel conditions are not being met."

Asked why they could then not issue a licence, she said: "I cannot comment on the delay, suffice to say we are minded to grant one and that it will be issued imminently." Anglian Water bosses have said there are no safety risks with the plant.

But Mrs Chapman said: "We have gone through 18 months of so-called consultation but the Environment Agency did not even bother to tell us. We have been promised surveys but we have seen nothing.

"A licence is the only protection we would have with something like this. People's health is paramount and the Environment Agency are doing nothing."

The Stambridge plant is designed to treat all sewage sludge from Southend with cement kiln dust so it can be sold to farmers as fertiliser.

Smells from the Southend works, also owned by Anglian Water, are claimed to have caused workers at nearby businesses to feel ill.

The licence has been delayed on at least three occasions since the summer.

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