A SMELL that was reported by residents to East Hampshire District Council on Monday came from manure being spread by farmers on fields to the west of Petersfield and carried on the wind across the town.
A council spokesman said: “We received two complaints about bad smells in Petersfield but it has been put down to muck-spreading by farmers.”
Isobel Bretherton, of the National Farmers’ Union regional office in Petersfield, said: “The manure is spread on fields after crops have been harvested, and it is then that there is a smell.
"But regulations mean farmers have to plough it in to the field straight away, so it is only about for a day, and then can only be smelt in Petersfield if the wind is in the right direction, so it only happens once a year for a very short time.”