Last week, three of Northern Ireland's leading agri-food companies began a public consultation process prior to submitting a planning application for the construction of the £100 million biomass power plant on the Ballyvannon Road near Glenavy,

O'Kane Poultry Ltd, Moy Park Ltd, and Glenfarm Holdings Ltd have joined forces to create Rose Energy, a company which proposes to construct a 30 megawatt power generating plant, fuelled mainly by poultry bedding.

However, although the proposed power plant could help benefit the local community by creating 30 new jobs at the plant - as well as playing a vital role in safeguarding over 7,000 existing jobs in the poultry and agri-food sector - local representative have voiced their misgivings over the location.

South Antrim MLA and Antrim councillor Thomas Burns urged the company to rethink their proposals saying he believes the location is "completely wrong".

"The plans are certainly innovative and I welcome any initiative to get electricity from renewable sources. However, I have misgivings about the 'green' credentials of this project and I believe the location is completely wrong. The 'fuel' is renewable, but I am very concerned about the potential emissions from this plant," Mr Burns said.

He added: "These proposals have to be viewed in the right context. The residents of Glenavy have had ongoing problems for years now with pollution from the existing animal by-products rendering operation which is closely linked to the prospective incinerator. The gases from this facility have negatively affected their quality of life and local people are very frightened that this new power plant will make the problem ten times worse."

Mr Burns said assurances were given that this factory would be state of the art but claimed it had been "a disaster for the people of the area".

"If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, a fog and a terrible stink hangs over the village. Millions of pounds have been spent attempting to tackle the problem - installing thermal oxidizers, making the chimneys bigger and so on - yet the issue is still not resolved," Mr Burns said.

He went on to detail how the people of Glenavy were worried about how large the new chicken litter operation would become and the increasing urbanisation of the surrounding area.

"The local people are concerned the operation might be extended to cover not just chicken litter, but will eventually be expanded to include just about any agricultural waste," he said.

He added: "Furthermore, I would be worried that in the event of something like another foot-and-mouth outbreak, this plant would be used for the large scale disposal of livestock carcasses and it would be pumping out noxious gases night and day.

"Additionally, this is a very rural area close to Lough Neagh and the roads are very narrow.