Cardenden Community Council fear nuisance from a recycling plant will rise if a planned extension of working hours gets the go ahead.
Concerns about the RWE wood chipping plant at Bowhill, and planning applications before Fife Council, have again been raised.
Over and above the normal operations, to chip and supply wood fuel for a biomass plant at Glenrothes, RWE Innogy UK has applied for planning permission to allow work on Saturday afternoons — instead of between 7am and 1pm at present.
While no wood chipping would happen after 1pm, the extension would give the firm more flexibility to bring in and dispatch lorries during that time.
Community Council secretary David Taylor claimed: “Other than for unscheduled deliveries, the main problem they anticipate is emergencies occurring more frequently, due to breakdowns at their Glenrothes biomass plant.
“This is caused by blockages in the fuel silo feed system and requires the material to be dug out and transported back to Bowhill, because there is no storage space at Glenrothes.
“The Bowhill site was never intended for this purpose and causes additional dust with lorries having to be unloaded and reloaded, as well as with the additional material being stockpiled, to a height of 20 ft, on site.”
He added the last breakdown had caused “extreme hardship” to locals by way of additional dust.
“Although dust suppression equipment has been installed, its effectiveness is questionable,” he said.
The planning application is due before councillors, with a recommendation from officers to give conditional approval, this week.
With the community council collating data on health-related issues, Mr Taylor added: “This situation is likely to continue for the next 25 years and we have asked the company to consider relocating their operations.”
A spokesman for the company said: “RWE takes its operational impact on the local community very seriously and we are disappointed to hear of the latest complaints.
“We have already spent £150,000 on dust suppression technologies and we will continue to work with the Bowhill Community Liaison Group to address any local issues associated with the processing site.”
He added this also included raising concerns at its regular meetings.
