HIGH summer.... and the sweet scent of honeysuckle and hay drifts across the North Yorkshire countryside - along with the stench of muck-spreading.

Now some residents of New Earswick have had enough after one of the hottest days of the year yesterday was accompanied by a rich stink wafting over from nearby fields.

Villager Steven Shaw contacted the Evening Press to complain, saying the smell was so bad that he could taste nothing else when he was eating his dinner.

"I've been to the shop and everyone is complaining about it. I am just wondering if anything can be done about it."

William Durrant, who lives near the field, said he had to keep his door shut because of the smell, despite the hot weather. "It gets in the house. It gets everywhere," he said. "It happens every year at this time."

A National Farmers' Union spokesman said today: "Spreading manure on the fields is the most organic and effective way of disposing of it, and of ensuring that nutrients remain in the soil."

He said farmers were aware of local residents, and took account of the direction of the wind when muck-spreading.

Updated: 11:32 Wednesday, August 15, 2001