Visitors to the showcase Chatham Waterfront development could soon be enjoying views over half a million tonnes of rubbish.

The news follows a planning application by one of the companies on the Medway City Estate to build a recycling plant in Whitewall Road.

There is already a major waterside recycling plant on the estate, directly opposite the planned waterfront park and cultural centre, which will include homes, businesses and shops, and just downstream from the council’s headquarters at Gun Wharf.

But now Veolia, the council’s current rubbish contractor, has applied to build a waste recycling plant on its yard.

If the scheme is approved, the firm plans to recycle 250,000 tonnes of rubbish a year.

Three existing companies on the estate recycle a total of 175,000 tonnes.

The plans follow the announcement that Medway Council intends to re-let its household waste contract, meaning Veolia could lose the contract it has held since it acquired Cleanaway.

The council wants to extend recycling, and one new condition of the contract is that the council would own the waste, and direct where it was sold.

A Veolia spokesman, said: “To support our existing waste operations we are proposing a new transfer and recovery facility for local recyclables and residual waste which will be located at Whitehall Road, Medway City Estate and will improve the regional waste infrastructure.”

Rochester ward councillor Teresa Murray (Lab), who hopes to replace Medway MP Bob Marshall Andrews at the next general election, said Strood was becoming the Towns’ dumping ground.

“We have to manage our waste more efficiently,” she said.

“But no one is looking after people’s interests in Strood at the moment."

Cllr Jane Chitty (Con), the Cabinet member responsible for strategic planning, said she would like to see major improvements at Medway City Estate.

“We have tried to encourage the various owners to get together with us to discuss improvements because the estate is important to us as an employment area,” she said.

“It is important that we raise the image and the quality of the area.

“Unfortunately the owners have not yet come together.”