IAN CLARKE Protesters are to hold a demonstration against a Norfolk poultry company's new rendering plant.Controversy has grown over Banham Compost's scheme in the Wensum Valley at Clay Hall Farm, Great Witchingham, near Norwich, with opponents saying it will “blight the area”.

IAN CLARKE

Protesters are to hold a demonstration against a Norfolk poultry company's new rendering plant.

Controversy has grown over Banham Compost's scheme in the Wensum Valley at Clay Hall Farm, Great Witchingham, near Norwich, with opponents saying it will “blight the area”.

They have also accused the company of preparing to bring in high-risk waste from around the country, creating an “accident waiting to happen” and starting work on a twin-unit plant without planning permission.

Banham has dismissed protesters' claims and says the work going on is on a single-unit plant which was approved in 2003.

It said it had no intention of processing higher risk material such as dead birds related to an avian flu outbreak and claimed that no odour would escape from the plant.

Fed-up residents from Lenwade, Sparham and other nearby villages will hold a demonstration next Saturday.

They will walk from the Bridge pub at Lenwade along the A1067 to the plant entrance and then on to a part of Marriott's Way.

No Stink campaign group spokesman Tania Spelacy said: “We strongly believe that this will blight the area in which we live.

“We believe that the tranquillity and environmental integrity of this much-loved Marriott's Way is also threatened by the Banham Compost development.

“Despite the fact that final planning permission for the plant has yet to be approved (or indeed discussed) by Norfolk County Council, building on the site is well under way - in fact its daily progress can clearly be seen from the Norwich to Fakenham road.”

The campaign group claims rendering plants are “notorious for emitting sickening odours”. It says 1,000 objections to the rendering plant have already been made to the county council.