Six acres of protected woodland near Backwell may be flattened and concreted over to make way for a massive composting plant.

New Earth Solutions of Dorset has submitted plans to build a commercial composting plant on woodland, which is in the green belt, at Brockley Coombe.

If approved, the plant will process 50,000 tons of waste each year and result in 51 lorry trips to the site each day.

Lorries would travel on the A370 and A38 and then through Brockley Combe, a road which is often congested and is a main route for airport traffic.

The trucks would also have to pass over a bridleway used by many horses and riders to get to the site, which is part of the Forest of Avon.

The land is also a foraging area for rare horseshoe bats which roost in the neighbouring Brockley Hall, is hunted by owls and is the habitat of slowworms and grass snakes.

The composting development will include a weighbridge, office building, waste reception building, composting halls, maturation and screening building, emissions treatment and associated plant.

More than a dozen residents have written to North Somerset Council urging it to reject the scheme and they are asking people from neighbouring communities to follow suit.

Residents have also launched the Downside Action Group to fight off the plans.

Group spokesman Ivan Baker said: "We feel very strongly that although a composting facility is a good idea and necessary for the future it should not be built on green belt land, but on brown land or an industrial estate.

"It should be close to good road links and close to Bristol from where the waste originates.

"We do not believe there is an overwhelming case for building on green belt land in this instance.

"We urge all people that value the green belt to object now to this application and protect it for our children and the future." Local residents held a protest this week at the entrance to the proposed development site.

Wrington parish councillor, Christine Turton, said: "This is a commercial waste processing plant which would be set in green belt land, amid a protected wildlife area.

"Access is by a totally inadequate road system which is already under huge pressure from increasing airport traffic."

Wanda Denning, of Brockley, said her family had owned and maintained woodland next to the site for nearly 60 years and it was inappropriate to develop it.

Mrs Denning said: "It isn't only Brockley which will suffer if this happens.

"There are already 16,000 vehicles a day using the A370, plus the airport traffic cutting through Downside.

"This will mean an extra 50 lorries a day cutting through places like Chelvey, Claverham, Yatton and Wrington."

A previous application to build off-site airport car parking there was refused by North Somerset in 2005.

People have until March 20 to contact the council with their opinions on the application.

Households in North Somerset generate some 112,438 tonnes of waste each year, a high proportion of which is disposed in landfill in Devon.

The council has to meet strict Government targets for the amount of waste it sends to landfill or risk being fined.

The West of England Waste Partnership, of which North Somerset Council is a member, is keen to ensure the area becomes more self-sufficient in dealing with its waste.

The partnership has recognised the need for several new composting, recycling and recovery sites in the region, including one in North Somerset.

A spokesman for New Earth Solutions, which designs, builds, finances and operates composting plants, said it had selected the site carefully and consulted with residents.

Commercial director, Peter Mills, said: "Over the past year we have engaged the local community in the formulation of our proposals. We have met with Brockley, Cleeve and Wrington Councils and have held two well-attended meetings with local residents and hosted a visit to one of our operational facilities at Canford in Poole.

"We have listened carefully to the views of the local community and have endeavoured to address all of the issues that emerged within the formal planning application, which includes a full justification of the location and a transport assessment.

"We operate other waste management facilities throughout the UK, including two within green belt locations. We believe that the proposed development will deliver a number of environmental, economic and social benefits."