Neighbours who say their street already smells are worried it will only get worse if plans for more homes nearby are approved.

A proposal has emerged to create six houses on land off Northwall Road in Deal, close to a scheme for a further 44 homes.

But residents fear the new-builds will aggravate sewer and drainage smells in the area, which already suffers from a bad stench.

Speaking to KentOnline, Sandra Collins said: “This last year, the smell from drains has been terrible.

“There are a lot of places in Deal that you walk past and there is a particular pong.

“There are places up this road that do have that but I hadn't experienced it until last year, and it was really smelly.

“On a couple of days, you couldn't even sit in the garden.”

The application has been submitted by a Mr J. Samuel, supported by agents Rebus Planning Solutions of Whitfield.

Six semi-detached four-bedroom houses are wanted on 0.23 hectares of land with 14 car parking spaces and 12 cycle ones.

But it is not just the smell residents are concerned over. There are fears over the risk of flooding, as the area is already a flood plain.

Mrs Collins added: “You don't even have to have an awful lot of rain for it to be like a bog.

“Last year in January and February, we had all that rain. You would have thought that there was an artificial lake.”

Neighbour Lydia Herbert is also concerned about flooding.

She said: “There is 20% more water now than we used to get. The rain is much heavier. It doesn't run away so fast, and we're already on a flood plain.

“We really don't want to get flooded anymore than we are.”

Her husband Graham raised concerns about extra traffic.

He said: “At certain times of the day, this road is like the M25. School time is particularly bad.

“The more traffic, the more chance there will be of someone getting injured.”

In total, 10 people have raised objections on Dover District Council’s planning portal.

Rachel Holden wrote that the area has a junction with poor visibility for drivers pulling out.

She added: “This is already an accident waiting to happen.

“We have the chemist traffic, and school buses that already struggle to get through at set times of the day.”

Paula Young summed up: “There isn't any infrastructure to support any more development in this area of Deal.”

In a separate application Kentish Projects wants to build 38 houses and six apartments next door on the former Crushintons Ltd concrete crushing plot at Sandfield Farm.

The scheme, submitted last August, has now raised 40 letters of objection to the planning portal with people fearing traffic congestion.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal

A spokesperson for Rebus said about the six-home scheme: “The recently adopted (Dover District) Local Plan, allocates this site as one that could deliver an indicative number of eight dwellings.

“It was the subject of a long public consultation exercise, over three years, and the principle of a housing development is now established.

“The applicant therefore commissioned the advice of a local civil engineering firm to work alongside the architectural designer.

“This was to ensure that this scheme of six dwellings can be designed and constructed to ensure that it is drained appropriately and it can safely accommodate the small amount of additional traffic.

“In acknowledging that this allocated site is within an area at risk of flooding, the design and drainage solution will ensure that flooding is not exacerbated elsewhere.”