Bad smells and traffic are behind villagers and a parish and town councils opposing a bid for the expansion of a waste disposal business.

Marc Graham, who runs Biomethane Castle Eaton Ltd, has applied to Swindon Borough Council to install another digester on the company’s site off the Droveway, a single-track road just south of Castle Eaton, near Cricklade.

As well as the extra digester – the fourth on site – the company wants to create an effluent lagoon for run-off from new silage storage bays it wants to build, and a rainwater pond as well as an office and weighbridge.

But neighbours are worried about the smells which they say already came from the site and the increase of traffic, especially lorries on the tiny road.

Paul and April Hill, who live nearby said: “This is a busy road for local transport both rural and commercial, with the road surface suffering because of this.

“The sides of the road are in a terrible condition with deep potholes and damaged verges, resulting in vehicles driving in the middle of the road, making access for heavy goods vehicles very dangerous.

"Much of the road damage was caused several years ago by the HGVs supplying the anaerobic digester plant and the construction of the solar fields."

Katherine Sainsbury added: “This is a major alteration to a site, right on the edge of a village, that has not yet completed its last development since gaining that planning permission.

"The road system is woefully inadequate to take even a small proportion of what is likely from the proposal.”

Castle Eaton Parish council has asked planners to refuse the application citing traffic and odour, adding: "Many residents have had cause to complain when only two digesters were in operation – there will be a threefold increase in the volume of the silage clamps.”

Cricklade Town Council has objected because the road from the site joins the A419 at the Seven Bridges junction which is says is a known accident blackspot.

There has been a plant on the farm site since 2012 when the first digester was installed. The company running it, Archard & Sons was given permission to expand in 2014 and now there are three digesters, but the company went into administration and the plant has not been used for five years.

Mr Graham’s application says it can help to move Swindon towards its carbon-neutral targets.

He said: “The energy produced by the plant is low carbon, sustainable and renewable and is therefore supportive of national objectives to de-carbonise the UK’s energy supply and to incorporate de-centralised, local energy generation capacity.”

Anaerobic digestion produces methane gas for industrial use or power generation by sealing in organic material in sealed air-tight containers.

This speeds up the breaking down of the matter, releasing the gas and producing a rich fertiliser.