Residents in Kings Hill are complaining of a rotten smell across the area.

Homes have been invaded by the stench a number of times in the last week - and it is thought a food waste processing plant could be to blame.

One resident, Brian Small said: "There's a very potent stink of rotten eggs that is occurring across the entire Kings Hill community. It's happened on three separate occasions in the past week and has become unbearable for some residents. It seems to enter people’s homes even with doors and windows firmly closed."

Accusing fingers have been pointed at a new anaerobic digestion plant being built at Blaise Farm Quarry, in Kings Hill.

The Blaise Biogas AD Facility will be operated by BioConstruct New Energy Ltd and is intended to process 75 tonnes of food waste a day.

Kings Hill Parish Council confirmed it was aware there had been some nasty smells in the area but did not know the source of the concern.

Peter Thomason, a spokesman for Tonbridge and Malling council said: "We believe the source of the odour is the Anaerobic Digestion plant at Blaise Farm which is currently undergoing commissioning."

"Ultimately, the plant will take the waste food that is put out as part of the weekly waste collection, but currently it is using a different feed as part of the commissioning process.

"It is thought that the different feed has led to the ‘rotten eggs’ smell that has been noticed."

The suspected source is a new plant, not to be confused with the existing In Vessel Composting (IVC) plant also at Blaise Farm that has been operating for a number of years.

Mr Thomason said: "The Environmental Protection team have been liaising with both the site operator and the Environment Agency (EA) to address the issue.

"The EA will ultimately regulate the site once it becomes fully operational with domestic food waste.

"There have been varying degrees of success with these strategies but unfortunately not all have been successful and some odour remains."

"We understand that as part of this liaison, the operator has deployed some strategies to both reduce the production of and counteract the ‘rotten eggs’ smell.

"There have been varying degrees of success with these strategies but unfortunately not all have been successful and some odour remains."

BioConstruct was invited to comment, but has not responded.

Back in 2013, Kings Hill and many other parts of Kent were affected by a similar obnoxious smell.

On that occasion the source was identified as the Lubrizol chemical factory in Rouen, in France, which had experienced a chemical leak, with vast clouds of sulphur-smelling gas drifting across the Channel.

Head to our business page for all of the latest news about businesses in Kent

Read more: All the latest news from Malling