A ‘stinking’ 25,000-tonne pile of rubbish in St Paul’s Cray will take even longer to clear, and cost more money, after the amount of waste was underestimated.

According to Bromley Council the Environment Agency’s calculation that there was 18,000 tonnes of rubbish at the Waste4Fuel site was incorrect.

The council said it now needs to secure more funding from the government to continue clearing the dump, which was infested with rats, and said that cannot happen until after the snap general election on June 8.

Work was initially halted in March this year after contaminated waste was found at the bottom of the pile which needs to be disposed of more carefully and will cost more.

Leslie Easton, who lives nearby in Hollytree Parade, has been writing letters to councillors and MPs about the issue for several years.

He said, about the most recent delay: “It is an absolutely disgusting, shameful shambles. All that stuff is still blowing all over the schools and they have confirmed it is contaminated.

“I don’t open my windows at all, I don’t want to get any more of that stuff coming in.”

Bromley Council contracted Veolia to clear the 12-metre mountain of rubbish in November last year after brokering a deal with the Environment Agency and 16,000 tonnes of trash was cleared.

In 2015 the London Fire Brigade (LFB) was called out more than 160 times to deal with blazes at the mountain of rubbish.

Figures obtained by News Shopper showed that between 2012 until August 2015 LFB spent £914,000 dealing with another 233 incidents at the heap.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:  “The Environment Agency has provided £2.9m of funding to help clear the Waste 4 Fuel site.

“This has led to a significant site improvement and there is no longer a risk to the environment.  

“We will support Bromley Council’s ongoing efforts to ensure the illegal waste is fully removed.

“This has been an extremely complex operation due to the size of the waste pile. It was only ever going to be possible to estimate the tonnage.

“The waste was found to be more dense than estimated.

“This could be due to a number of factors including decomposition and rainfall”.

Councillor Colin Smith, Deputy Leader of Bromley Council said: “We have written to local residents as part of our commitment to keep residents informed about the situation and we are hopeful work will resume fairly shortly.”