It's a sweet New Year for British Sugar in York, where the annual campaign is reaching its furious and successful climax.

The campaign, named after Napoleon Boneaparte's bid to vanquish the Russians before the onslaught of winter, is that annual 22-week rush both to harvest and process the beet crop.

By the time it is over in mid-February, 1.35 million tonnes of raw beet will have been delivered to that mighty steaming, hissing, roaring place in Plantation Drive, and converted into more than 200,000 tonnes of sugar.

That is close to last year's blockbuster record-breaking campaign of 210,000 tonnes of sugar. This year's projected 110,000 tonnes of animal feed pellets exceeds last year's production by 10,000 tonnes - an all-time best.

General manager Steve Williams said it was achieved in spite of the fact that this year's beet crop contained less sugar.

Last year the beet contained a phenomenal 20 per cent of sugar; this time it had dropped back to normal levels of about 17 per cent.

Mr Williams, who this year took on an extra 30 seasonal part-timers to swell his workforce to 140 people, said: "So far the campaign has been trouble-free, and credit must go to our staff and the 3,000 people in North Yorkshire who all played their part, including growers, transporters and engineers."

As the campaign intensifies, computers carefully monitor crystallisation and separation, every nuance of temperature in the vats, every aberration in the carbonation and filtration process, every surge in the 13.5 million therms of gas used.

But for years residents for miles around have monitored the ferocity of the campaign with a sniff.

Many enjoy the sweet, cloying smell issuing from the factory's chimney.

But many more do not, and it looks like this will continue to remain a problem for the time being.

Mr Williams said that experiments at other British Sugar plants to reduce the odour had not been as successful as had been hoped.

"But we are continuing to keep an eye on the latest technology available," he said.

The plant, which is a former winner of the Evening Press Environmental Business of the Year, had always had its processes authorised by the Environment Agency.

"But from next year we will have registered the factory for IPPC - or Integrated Pollution Prevention Control.

"That means that it won't just be specific processes which are monitored, but the whole factory."

Updated: 08:42 Monday, January 03, 2005