A LONG-awaited £6million investment to solve the stench at High Heavens recycling site got the thumbs up from residents at a meeting on Tuesday night.

A fully enclosed tent-like building will be built on the site in Booker to deal with the breakdown of garden and kitchen waste, which Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) hopes will get rid of the smell.

Waste will go into one end of the 4,000 sq ft aluminium-framed maturation building and come out the other end as compost, which can then be sold on to farmers and the public.

This new building will deal with the second stage of composting, which is currently being done in the open on concrete slabs.

The first stage is done in sealed vessels, known as clamps, and more of these are also being built to speed up the flow of waste through the site.

Lee Robinson, senior waste projects officer at BCC, said: "I think if I'm honest there have been smells.

"This has been mainly due to the process control not being efficient.

"We have changed the contractors, they have introduced additional air systems into the clamps, changed the mix of material.

"That's already starting to solve the problems there.

"Our objective is to do this for the benefit of everybody and turn waste disposal into a useful product efficiently and, hopefully, cost effectively."

The 60-acre site off Clay Lane will also get more car parking spaces and better access to an enlarged recycling area where people will be able to get rid of cardboard, paper, plastic, glass and even batteries.

Cressex, Booker and Marlow Bottom residents have inundated BCC with complaints about the smell coming from the site for months, but those that went to an exhibition on Tuesday were optimistic about the plans.

John Barlow, 59, from Marlow Bottom, said: "I have to say I'm impressed.

"People have recognised that there actually is a problem.

"The impression I get is that somebody's listened and for whatever reason they are trying to do something about it."

The freelance light and cameraman and father-of-two added: "I'm hardly an expert but technically it seems as if it should work."

But some residents remained sceptical. Brian Pearce, 60, from Harman Walk, Booker, said: "They're trying their hardest and I accept that a line's got to be drawn under it, just providing they get it right. I'm all for saving the planet but we have got to be able to breathe the air in it."

The plans will be discussed at a meeting in May and if they are approved work is expected to begin this autumn.

The improvements must be finished by October 2008 as Wycombe District Council (WDC) is going to increase its green bin collection.

Homes in Cressex, Booker, Castlefield and small hamlets like Frieth and Hambleden will be getting green bins in 2009.

The plans also tie in with new European rules, which say every local authority that deals with waste must hit targets about how much rubbish they send to landfill, or face a fine.