CLEAN air campaigners are urging Southall residents to report odour nuisance on an app to reveal the scale of the problem near the former gasworks site.

Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are asking residents to report twice a day to an app called Odour Collect, due to concerns Ealing Council's reporting hotline is 'very difficult' to use and is deterring people from logging the issue.

Campaigner Angela Fonso said some people have experienced long waits on the phone up to 45 minutes and that it's 'quite reasonable' in the 21st century to have an app to report the problem, similar to the app Love Clean Streets.

She said: "I suspect a lot of underreporting going on.

"I would encourage everyone who lives in Southall to find this app, download it, and start using it because what we've experienced with Ealing Council they're very reticent to take action."

The call came in a meeting on January 26 hosted by Ealing Southall MP, Virendra Sharma addressing concerns about the Southall Green Quarter development – formerly known as Southall Waterside.

Mr Sharma and his team told members what steps he was taking to follow up the concerns over the impact on the health of residents related to pollutants detected at the development, which people have been campaigning against for years.

The CASH group formed in 2018 following reports from residents of headaches, vomiting, nausea and serious illnesses such as cancer which they claim are directly linked to a petrol-like odour coming from the 88-acre former gasworks site.

Work had been carried out to treat the soil at the development to make it safe, which ended in 2019 and Public Health England has produced a series of reports finding it is 'unlikely' there is a direct toxicological risk to the long-term health of the nearby population.

But this is disputed by residents living in the area.

Mr Sharma said: "Residents were promised when remediation finished there would be no smell, yet the smell continues.

"It is not safe, and it is a nuisance."

Among action he was taking, the MP said he was urging Ealing Council to carry out an equity assessment on the health impact of the Southall gasworks site on residents, focussing on factors of deprivation and race.

And he is campaigning for policy change in government and within the Labour party's position regarding work on brownfield sites.

Speaking in the debate for the Environment Bill on January 26, Mr Sharma also said: "The Government do not seem to appreciate the dire position we are in, for although our air is far cleaner today than at any point in our lives, some communities have not seen the benefits.

"My constituency is one of them.

"We know that deprivation and race make us more susceptible to pollution.

"We in Ealing Southall are suffering because of that and, cruelly, the system keeps making things worse.

"This is a matter of justice and equity.

"Campaigns such as CASH in my constituency are saying no and holding us all to account.

"For thousands living near the gasworks, this is an issue of equity.

"That is why action must be targeted on the areas with the most polluted air today."

While residents attending the meeting welcomed Mr Sharma's position and pledges, some were angered at the lack of previous action, adding: "We expect you to stand up and do a lot more than has been done."

Another resident said: "It's taken Mr Sharma nearly five or six years to say he's behind us, where's he been hiding all these years and why hasn't he come before now?"

Meanwhile, progress is being made on Ealing Council's delay at finding an independent air monitoring consultant that was expected to be in place last August.

The Council agreed with developer Berkeley Homes to take over the air quality monitoring of the gasworks site due to serious questions being raised by residents and stakeholders over the transparency of data provided directly by the developer, through its own consultant Atkins.

It was reported by Mr Sharma that Berkeley Homes have agreed to pay for the monitoring.

And he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting: "The relationship between Atkins and Berkeley Homes is a cosy one and that leaves plenty of room for doubt about a conflict of interest.

"The gaps in the data, the strange presentation of it and emissions near the limits all raise issues of transparency.

"We need independent monitoring of the air locally, administered by Ealing Council, done by a firm acceptable to the local community, so they can have faith in what they are being told, and data published in near real time."

An Ealing Council spokesperson said: "We are currently working with a proposal from an environmental pollution specialist for VOCs, NO2 and PM monitoring at the Southall Waterside development.

"We hope to come to an agreement with the contractor as soon as possible.

"As the negotiations are ongoing we are unable to provide further details at this time."

Berkeley Homes and Atkins were contacted for comment but did not respond.