WHEN Thames Water talks about the smells wafting from the 'cake barn', they're not talking the Great British Bake Off.

This is Oxford Sewage Treatment Works, the place where the contents of every toilet in Oxford comes to be processed.

The 'cake' they make here is the residual, semi-solid material produced as a by-product of treating sewage, and the 'cake barn' is where they store it.

Until now, Thames Water has been controlling the emissions from the cake barn pretty well: between January 2012 and December 2015 the company only recorded eight complaints from its neighbours about the smell.

But now it is having to planning something slightly stronger: a consortium of landowners, including Oxford City Council, Magdalen College and Thames Water itself, are hoping to sell off land immediately south of the Grenoble Road plant, between Sandford and Greater Leys, for a 3,500-homes estate.

Under the initial plans, the new estate would have school playing fields right next door to the sewage treatment works.

So, the company has drawn up a raft of imaginative smell-control measures so the residents of the new estate won't kick up a stink.

Among the plans are a new cover for the 'digested sludge holding tank', new walls for the open-sided 'cake barn' and a new 'odour control unit'.

It is also planning a new '15m high stack' to 'disperse emissions from the cake barn'.

Under the plans, much of the gas currently coming off the sludge and going into the atmosphere would be directed into a combustion chamber and turned into electricity.

Thames Water chose its smell-control methods after an official Odour Impact Assessment by specialists from Odournet.

In a planning application to Oxfordshire County Council, the firm said: "All the proposed measures are included as part of this application and will result in a large decrease in the odour exposure levels when compared to the current baseline conditions at the sewage works.

"This will benefit both the proposed South Oxford Science Village and the local area generally."

However, Thames Water also clarified that the proposed improvements would only be carried out if the science village actually goes ahead.

Spokeswoman Becky Trotman said: "By liaising with the council about our plans now, we’ll be prepared and ready to get the work done, should the development go ahead."

The team behind South Oxford Science Village are now refining their plans with a view to putting in a full planning application.

In the meantime, Littlemore Parish Council summarised some locals' feelings about Thames Water's smell-control plans by commenting: "We are told that any changes will have no impact on the surrounding area.

"We request that the county planning officers ensure that this is the case when making their decision."