The site of the former waste processing plant in Waterside Park, Rodbourne Cheney can become a transfer station for rubbish collected from Swindon’s doorsteps.

The plant was used until last year to dry out non-recyclable waste collected from the doorstep in the borough and make industrial fuel – but the contract to handle that rubbish was moved from Public Power Solutions which owns the plant to Viridor, and the operations have ceased.

Now Swindon Borough Council has been given planning permission to use the site as a handling facility – unloading its bin lorries there and storing the rubbish until it can be shipped out by Viridor to its sites where it is turned into energy.

The tonnage of waste to be handled is estimated at 60-65,000 tonnes per year, less than the 80,000 that went there in its previous operation.

The site was identified as the probable source of the notorious foul-smelling ‘Rodbourne Pong’ by the council’s consultants Arup.

Tests conducted last year when the plant was still in use processing household waste identified it as the source of a ‘rancid, cheesy-vomit’ stink and suggested it was the length of time that rubbish was stored, undisturbed, which let waste at the bottom of piles decompose, releasing the smell when the pile was disturbed.