A stinking, rat-infested, frequently burning rubbish pile that was described as like “living next to rotting corpses” is finally more than halfway cleared.

The 18,000 tonne trash pile on the former Waste4Fuel site in St Paul's Cray had been left to fester for several years.

The litter heap caught fire regularly, with figures obtained by the News Shopper showing that between 2012 until August 2015 the London Fire Brigade (LFB) spent £914,000 dealing with 233 incidents at the heap.

Waste4Fuel Ltd had its licence revoked and was forced to pay £8,960 after the LFB condemned the company for stacking flammable materials 12 times higher than legal limits.

The 40ft (12m) high and 60ft (18m) wide garbage hill was described as a “living nightmare” by neighbours as they were frequently invaded by rats from there.

Bromley Council brokered the deal in August of last year with the Environment Agency to enable access to allow the clearance to be carried out by contractors Veolia, with work beginning on clearing the waste mountain on November 1, 2016.

News Shopper:

As of December 18 of last year, contractors Veolia had already cleared over 12,000 tonnes of waste from the site.

Jan Watkins, 62, a grandmother-of-two who lives nearby, praised the work to clear the site.

She said: "They seem to be getting on with it. Visually it looks as if it's half gone, the top half was narrower than the top half, visually it looks like they are making really good progress.

"They are doing a good job. Our biggest fear was that the smell would be really bad, the smells have been hardly noticeable. I was expecting the worst, they seem to have control of the fires, that was an anxiety going through my mind.

"I haven't been plagued by rats as I feared.

"Things have improved considerably. They are doing a terrific job, I am really pleased with the contractors."

She said local residents hoped that once the clearance work had been completed, the site could be turned into a visitor centre and car park providing access to the nearby Ruxley lakes.

Mrs Watkins said: "It's a beautiful serene lake, it's a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) site and it would be great to have access and local schools could visit as well."

If you’ve been affected by the waste and want to have your say email joe.dempsey@newsquest.co.uk