Officers at Swindon Borough Council are set to investigate the 'Rodbourne pong'.

The chairman of Swindon Borough Council’s scrutiny committee Jim Robbins, who is a councillor for the area, told members of the committee: “I have asked for a report into air quality, including the infamous 'Rodbourne pong' that was featured in the Adver recently.”

He has asked for the report to be brought to the committee at its next but one meeting on December 7.

Mr Robbins said the report should not just be about the smell, but also about air quality in general with a focus on the council’s air quality management area plan in Kingshill, where pollution is worst in the borough.

Residents of Rodbourne said they have been putting up with a foul vomit-like smell for about three years – but that its effects have got worse this year because more people are shielding, or working from home and cannot escape it.

Some think the source of the reek could be the Cheney Manor industrial estate just to the north of Rodbourne.

One of the companies using the estate is the council’s wholly-owned firm Public Power Solutions which processes non-recyclable domestic waste into industrial fuel.