Villagers are facing two more years of misery as dumping at a Cullingworth tip is set to continue.

Angry residents attended a parish meeting to call for a referendum in a bid to put pressure on Bradford Council to end dumping at the controversial Manywells Quarry disposal site.

More than 40 villagers turned out at Cullingworth Village Hall to back two motions calling for the site, operated by company Wastepoint, to be closed and to revoke an extension to its disposal license to fill new land which could go on for another two years.

Residents say the stench from the site has become unbearable and Bingley Rural councillor Simon Cooke has labelled the waste mountain "like the north face of the Eiger overshadowing the village."

Dianne Marshall, 54, of Cullingworth Road, a leading opponent of the landfill site, said: "We thought that this would be our last summer of having to put up with the horrendous odour and they would finish there in December. But now it looks like we have got two more years of it. It's a disgrace. How can an extension be granted when we've got enough problems at the existing site?

"The stench is appalling - I was trying to garden last week but I had to come in because I felt sick, and the flies are awful.

"All we can do is put pressure on the Council and Environment Agency and hope they sit up and listen."

Planning permission for the whole site, including extension areas to the original site, was granted a year ago and expires in March 2001.

Cullingworth's parish council clerk will now write to Bradford Council's chief executive asking for him to organise a referendum along the lines of a mini-council election open to everyone on the electoral register living in the Cullingworth parish..

Coun Cooke, said: "The referendum will not be legally binding in any way but it is more of a consultation process and will put pressure on the local authority to take action.

"It will make it clear to the Environment Agency that local people are very unhappy at how the licence has been operated. What I hope is that it will raise the issue and stop the licence extension being issued."

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