RESIDENTS of a Basildon caravan park are fed up of the smell, noise and ‘hundreds of flies’ that are ruining their lives because of the nearby waste plant.

The homeowners of Hovefields Park say they were promised that the new waste plant would barely effect them, but claim their lives have been turned upside down.

The £800 million waste treatment plant along Courtauld Road, Basildon, has now been in operation for around 18 months.

The residents of the caravan park backing onto the facility have had enough of the effects and yesterday staged a protest demanding action be taken.

They say it’s affecting their children’s health, they cannot sleep because of the noise and flies, cannot eat inside or out because of this, their washing gets dirty and their lives have generally been made more difficulted since the facility begun operation.

Resident Irene Smith, 34, said something needs to be changed as it's even making their children sick.

She said: "It affects our whole lifestyle.The weekends are worse, they are terrible. There are hundreds of flies. We have had the problem for the past 18 months.

“They are breaching the licence because there wasn’t supposed to be no flies or smell. There’s flies, rats, the smell, it’s terrible.

“It will all kick off eventually but we are trying out best to be civilised.

“I pay rent and council tax to live here and I’m living in a place where my children can’t go outside."

Elvie Eastwood, 56, added: "It’s been terrible. The mess is everywhere and it makes the children sick. It’s affecting out quality of life, we have to keep the windows and doors closed.

“Even at Christmas we had flies. We need change.”

The waste plant were unavailable for comment.