Please help! What smelly plant can I grow to mask a terrible odour?

Sugarplum, from your description of the smell it is NOT within legal limits )(I used to have some sort of involvement in this sort of thing). Basically, there should be NO nuisance smell beyond the boundary of the factory.
Keep pestering your Environmental Health Department and get as amny neighbours as you can to pester them. Make a nuisance of yourself - legally, of course. Make them take action; it will take time but, eventually, you should be able to get it sorted.

How aweful to have that disgusting smell around...all the time...I agree with Bulbaholic...make as much noise (ha...within legal limits of course) as you can...get the neighbours involved...go to the press.....tv.......
I live quite near a food processing factory (spuds)...and occasionally, depending on which way the wind is blowing, we get a horrid cold curry potato sort of smell. The factory do their best to keep the smell down...they have installed special extraction units etc., to keep the smells down.
Good luck!!

Thanks Bulbaholic, that is what I thought too, however I complain most days to our environmental health team, they come out and if the smell is present when they visit the factory and tell them off. They were prosecuted last month for the smell but it is still happening. The council say they can do nothing unless they breach their contract which they only do on odd occasions (then they take them to court). They are closing in 2010 apparently which makes it even harder as I dont think the council are bothered anymore. Local residents are mostly renting and dont tend to complain but I have a hotline to the council.
I have tried for so long to stop the smell but was hoping for a miracle stinking plant or something which could help in the short term but perhaps I am wishing for too much.

my mum said the star gazer lillys are the strongest my mum has smelt.

i recently visited the queens gardens at sandringham and discovered wth the help of the super people on here a mock orange (philidelphus) a beautiful sweet fragrance which carried for at least 15ft away, although saying that this was a big bush/shrub about 7 or 8ft high & wide. SO now ive got 1 in my garden & only time will tell if it reaches such a size (fingers crossed) & of course under the right conditions.........ive also jst recently received a STAR JASMIN (trachelospermum jasminoides) for my birthday (18th) a climber wth a nice fragrance...or you can look up fragrant flowers on this wonderful site......Hope ive helped in some way or other. ;)

For autumn grow Eleagnus maculata, the flowers are sweet but insignificant but the smell is powerful and travels a few feet away from the plant. For winter choose Sarcococca (winter box). For summer, any of the lilies, or night scented stocks or Nicotiana evening scented varieties (you'll have to do this from seed as the Garden Centre ones are not usually scented). This year I have also grown Zaluzianskya ( bit of a long name ) it smells in the evening of sherbet sweeties!
So sorry to hear of your problem. It is very upsetting when outside forces influence the enjoyment of your own space.

I have Zaluzianskya too...it does have a lovely scent and its so pretty too..:))

i agree with mock orange although its quite alarge shrub also old english roses are lovely scented

Plant SOUTHERNWOOD (Artemesia abrotanum) Lemon Balm. Eau de Cologne Mint. and for a shrub Choisya ternata.. and Bay Tree. All have fragrant foliage.You can tear off a leaf or two to vent your fury at the same tim e.

For early in the year - Feb to April, I can recommend Daphne Bholua. It has a sweet perfume which is so strong it makes me swoon.You would need to get one that is a few years old though. Even when the horrid factory has closed, it will be absolutely gorgeous for you to walk outside and feel a moment of joy as it stuns your scent-buds.
For this time of year, how about some ready-grown stocks. The ten-week variety or the perennial ones are both in flower. Not to forget our own lovely scented honeysuckle. Also Nicotiana, which is a scented gem in the evening.
But it sounds like you will need a forest of flowers to counter the smell of rotting flesh and poo. If it happened here in Exeter, I know that I would resort to contacting the local paper. They love a good campaign. good luck.

Another herb that smells gorgeous is the lemon verbena - when you crush the leaves it smells of those lemon sweets you get with the sherbert in the middle.

For your party the citronella candles should create enough scent to at least partially disguise the stench. As B says keep on complaining... you should not have to put up with this at all. Not only is the company polluting the air you are running the risk of disease as there will be flies feeding of the rubbish. Sounds to me like your local council is a lazy disgrace. Contact your local radio and TV stations. Write letters to your local newspaper. Write to your MP and European MP. Try to get photos to prove that there are carcasses lying around rotting and supply those to the media... Good luck!

Sugarplum, you should also involve the Environment Agency (I am guessing you live in England). I would expect that they licence the premises and probably have more control over smell issues than does the local authority.

Hmmm - if it were me I'd be handcuffed to the gates and .......... well, maybe not LOL If you're in the south then Jasmine is the strongest summer scent I can think of, it's not hardy in the north tho. If you don't mind the smell of curry, then curry plants are very highly scented and quite pungent. Not everyone likes it, but i should think it's prefereable to the putrid stuff you're putting up with.

I like the smell of the Curry Plant, not long ago I planted a little one in my front garden and since than every time my husband come back home tells me how much he loves that smell too.

The strong smell that linger in the air whet the appetite.

Try Passiflora caerulea ( Passion Flowers plant ) if you have a place where to put a net up to tie this very fast growing climber - it makes a profusion of very perfumed flowers plus the fruit are edible.