A COMPOSTING firm is hoping to expand to Thornbury despite ongoing controversy at a current site in Old Sodbury.

Green Waste Management Services Ltd owns the site at South Croft Farm near Old Sodbury School, which has long been the source of residents' complaints.

People living near the site say the constant smell is making their lives a misery.

And now, the Gazette can reveal that the same company is applying for planning permission for another compost site at Morton Farm, Thornbury.

However, Cllr Sue Hope (Lib Dem, Cotswold Edge) is warning the people of Thornbury about the problems the composting site in Old Sodbury had caused.

She told the Gazette: "At the moment we are receiving complaints about the smell from the site.

"People should know that there are smells that come from this composting site and that people in Old Sodbury are very unhappy about it."

But managing director of Green Waste Management Services Ltd, Martin Gill assured people living near Morton Farm that smells would not be a problem.

He said he and his wife and children would be living 60 metres away from the site, and that they would not put up with smells or any other nuisances.

After a visit to the Old Sodbury site last year, Sodbury town councillor Paul Clark warned that the site was beginning to resemble a rubbish dump. He said the town council would not have backed the scheme if they had known this would happen.

And he told the Gazette this week that any future sites should be carefully considered.

He said: "It wouldn't be fair to say that our problems will be the same in the new composting site. The key thing is that careful consideration should be taken about the geographical location of the site in relation to residents."

A deodorising system was put in place but many residents claim it is not working and were complaining, as recently as Sunday, about the smell coming from the site.

There were also concerns that non-recyclable items were being taken to the site. The existing compost farm, and the new one in Thornbury, would both help recycle the region's cardboard and green waste, such as grass cuttings.

South Gloucestershire Council's recycling contractors SITA already use the Old Sodbury site and would take waste to the Thornbury site.