The owner of Mogden sewage works has launched an appeal against legal orders designed to stop unsavoury smells escaping from the site.

The news dealt a blow to the treatment works’ neighbours in Isleworth, Twickenham and St Margarets, who, according to Hounslow Council leader Peter Thompson, “have been blighted and hindered” by odours coming from the site for years.

In the run up to Christmas the council slapped Thames Water with three odour abatement notices, which it hoped would force the company to tackle strong stenches that officers claimed were sometimes leaking from three separate locations.

However, Thames Water rubbished the need for statutory orders to be served and pledged to argue the case before magistrates.

On Wednesday a spokeswoman said: “We have today lodged an appeal against three odour abatement notices. We have already agreed to action a number of requirements within the notices with the council. As a result, the notices are inappropriate and unnecessary.

“We are fully confident in the manner in which we conduct our day-to-day operations at our Mogden works and consider the council has no legal basis for serving these notices.”

Syon ward councillor, Jonathan Hardy, said “a whole catalogue of deficiencies at the plant” that he alleged had not been resolved meant the council had no choice but to serve the order.

He said: “It is regretable that Thames Water does not take its responsibilities to the community seriously enough to respond in a more positive way. “I have seen enough expert testimony relating to Modgen to confirm that it is not operating the facility as well as it should.”