AN angry householder says she has been fighting the smell of spicy cooking wafting into her house for years but claims the council will not do anything about it.

Mother-of-two Tarla Mahida, of Willowmead Gardens, Marlow, says she has suffered years of misery from her neighbours' fan, installed when they moved into the house nearly four years ago.

Wycombe District Council says it has investigated the problem and the fan does not constitute a nuisance.

But Mrs Mahida insists that the smell and noise are so bad she may be forced to move after nearly three decades living there.

Mrs Mahida said: "I have lost interest in the garden and the house we have lived in for 26 years.

"I used to like it here but it [the fan] is making life unbearable. The smell from what they cook in the kitchen gets everywhere we cannot sit out in the garden because of the smell."

She added that the extractor fan was very noisy and that they could hear it humming constantly.

She explained: "Because these are terraced houses the humming of the fan goes through to the other houses.

"Sometimes I turn up for work smelling of food and people say have you been cooking and I say 'no my neighbours have'."

Owner of the house Abdul Rob had the 10ft long extractor fan fitted to the roof of his home in 1998.

Wycombe District Council issued a noise abatement notice concerning the fan in the same year and Mr Rob complied with the order by getting it quietened down.

But Mrs Mahida said the problem has not gone away.

"I want to know why the council does not do anything. They have the power," she said.

But Abdul Rob, the owner of the house, said: "I want to be happy with my neighbours and I do not want any problems and I want to be fair to them.

"The council have come a lot of times to look and they have said there are not any problems."

He added: "I have tried to mediate with her but she does not want it.

"Most recently they [the council] did a few tests and found nothing wrong it is just her who is complaining.

"I have a large family and we only cook at dinner times."

A spokesman for Wycombe District Council said: "We have investigated complaints on a number of occasions over the past three years.

"An abatement order was served in 1998 following which changes were made, checks were carried out and the case closed.

"Each complaint about noise and odour since then has been investigated but none have been substantiated."

The spokesman added that as far as the council was concerned nothing was wrong.

He said: "We take such complaints very seriously but in this case no statutory nuisance has been deemed to exist."