Residents are mounting a protest against attempts by a company to increase the number of its vehicles travelling through Bradford.

Omega Proteins, part of the recycling enterprise the Leo Group, is appealing against Bradford Council’s refusal to allow it to double the lorries in and out of its depot in Half Acre Road, Denholme.

A group of residents living in Thornton, Queensbury, Shelf and Denholme is opposing the appeal.

Under restrictions by the authority in 2002, the number of lorries travelling in and out of the site is limited to 30 a day, averaged over a two week period, with a maximum of 40 allowed in any one day.

Omega Proteins, which also operates from a site in Swalesmoor, near Queensbury, is also seeking to extend the hours during which its vehicles can enter and depart the Denholme depot from 8am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday, to 7am to 11pm each day, except Sundays.

Graham Fawthrop, of Thornton, who set up the campaign, said: “The wagons stink. You can’t have your windows open at night in the bedroom. Because of the noise and the smell you can’t get a decent night’s sleep.”

Councillor Michael Walls (Con, Queensbury) said he was calling for the waste to be transported in sealed containers to reduce the smell and risk of spillages.

A spokesman for the Leo Group, the parent company of Omega Proteins, said: “The meat industry is a 24-hour-a-day operation and, for health, hygiene and regulatory reasons, it is our job to get the waste to our plants as soon as possible.

“It is for this reason that we are applying to have traffic movements eased so we can continue our vital service – which has created local jobs for local people – to this most important of British industries.”

Peter Bridgman, Bradford Council’s development manager, said: “Anyone wishing to make representations concerning company vehicle movements should make them to the Government-appointed planning inspector who will determine later this year the appeal against Bradford Council’s decision to refuse permission for Omega Proteins Ltd to extend its vehicle operations at the Half Acre Road site.”

The company was fined £4,500, later reduced to £3,334, in 2008 for spilling tallow in Roper Lane en route from the depot to Halifax, causing the road to be closed for four hours. In 2005 Omega Proteins was fined for failing to store and transport animal parts safely.