FED up residents are sick of a “stink” caused by passing sludge tankers that “shake” their street.

People living in Kent Road, in St Denys, want Southern Water to use an alternative route so they can have some peace.

The problem has been compounded by other lorries also using Kent Road.

Retired pub landlord Nick Young, 73, said: “You're lying in your bed at night and... you can hear them. You can feel it in your bed.”

Another resident, a 76-year-old woman who did not want to be named, said: “The smell is absolutely horrendous, it’s awful.

“I was outside chatting to my daughter when one of the sewage trucks went past and she just had to leave because the smell was too bad. There’s been HGVs with their lights on at 4am.

“The damage to the road is dangerous, someone on a bike could hit a bump, and have a serious accident. The smell is the worst thing though.”

Southern Water said it has no option but to use the route to carry away treated sludge from its site at the bottom of Kent Road.

The embattled utility company previously used a barge to move the sludge, but there were problems with the tide stopping unloading.

James Newell, a 61-year-old photographer, said: ‘Every time they go up and down there's a bad smell.

“You can see the road is failing because it's got these sort of cracks in.

“What happens is when they come down you'll feel the house go. Everything sort of moves a bit, you can feel it.”

Richard Collins, 63, who works on tugboats, and has lived in Kent Road for a year, said: “When lorries go past, any heavy vehicles anything like that... everything vibrates, everything. It's just bloody awful.

“It's a double-edged sword, because if you made the road good, they'd go even faster.”

He added: “Surely it's got to be better and more eco-friendly to go back to the barge use.”

Ward councillor John Savage said: “One person told me they were planning on moving because the smell is that bad.

“There’s no reason in this day and age to move waste on lorries through residential areas.”

A Southern Water spokesman said the company had worked with Cllr Savage. He said: “Kent Road represents the only possible route our tankers can take to remove treated sludge – which eventually gets used as fertiliser – from our treatment works at the bottom of the road.

“Schedules for regular movements have been agreed but occasionally in emergencies we cannot let our customers know. Recently, we had to clean out a storm tank so rain would not lead to sewer flooding.”