COMPOST pioneers running an experimental waste-to-fertiliser plant are causing a stink over their bid to stay on a site near Leominster.

Two councils are at loggerheads over the future of Bioganix Ltd, which is processing 150 tonnes of waste a week, mainly feathers from the Sun Valley factory.

The firm - winner of a Bulmers award for sustainable development - has put off plans to find a site for a £3million purpose built new factory with a 1,000 tonne-plus capacity.

Instead, it is seeking planning approval for its pilot plant at Wharton Court, beside Leominster bypass, for five years.

Leominster Town Council is calling on county planners to refuse permission because of "severe odour problems over a very wide area." But the town councillors have come under fire from neighbouring Humber & Stoke Prior Parish Council.

The site is just within the town council's area but Stoke Prior says its residents are the people who are most affected. The town council has never visited the site and has not followed 'the plot.'

Councillors in the rural parish say they appreciate the importance of the planning application - vital work to reduce the local 'pong' depends on it. Odour scrubbers and a filter bed are key features.

Parish council chairman Peter Lefroy-Owen said: "The town council's reaction is ill-judged and ill thought out. Its total and utter nonsense to turn down the application - that would just mean more odours released into the atmosphere.

In favour

"We are strongly in favour but with stringent conditions. Bioganix is using a groundbreaking process that could have European significance. They are serious - we want them to succeed, though not at our expense as a community."

Leominster mayor Janet Atkinson, who chairs the town council planning committee, said the council was justified in urging refusal. Bioganix had "broken promises" over preventing smells.

"The smell is horrendous and there have been many complaints. This is a retrospective planning application - why haven't the smells ceased?"

The town council planning committee discussed the plan at length. Members were unanimous in their opposition, said Councillor Atkinson.

Bioganix chief Nick Helme, who lives at the site, said he regretted that town councillors were "barking up the wrong tree." The planning application was retrospective (for work already done) but included odour busting works in development costing £250,000. Improvement was the aim.

"There is not another plant like this in the country," said Mr Helme. "We are right at the cutting edge and we are trying very hard to get on top of the odour problem.

"We are local people ourselves - we don't want to upset anyone and are working to get things right."

Conditions mooted by Stoke Prior council include a 'no smells' period before planning approval is given.