Michael Hope (49), of Powmill, and James Winters (50), of Glenfarg, face three charges under the Environment Protection Act 1990 for the site at unit 3 in the M90 Commerce Park. It is alleged that they kept around 3500 tonnes of old carpets and 3500 tonnes of other rubbish, including gas cylinders and tyres, without the proper authority and in a manner likely to cause damage to the environment and human health.

In 2013, the then Fife Council leader and now Cowdenbeath MSP, Alex Rowley, said he had been told “the cost of cleaning up this site could be anywhere between £700,000 to £1million” and “the smell coming from the site can be very horrible”.

The site is at the entrance to the commerce park, situated on the Gask Road between Kelty and Dunfermline, which is also home to a popular visitor attraction, the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum.

Unit 3 was operated by First Options Services, who specialised in recycling materials including carpets, plastics and plasterboard, until the business ceased trading in June 2012.

With its demise, the procurator fiscal decided at a court hearing in May that proceedings should continue against the two men who were in charge of the company.

Mr Hope and Mr Winters are charged with keeping and disposing of controlled waste, namely approximately 3500 tonnes of waste carpets and around 3500 tonnes of waste plasterboard and gypsum, wood, metal, plastic, cardboard, paper, ‘intermediate bulk containers’, gas cylinders and tyres, in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment or harm to human health, in that stockpiling it produced offensive odours, between November 2010 and April 2014. The second and third charges say that they kept this waste on the site, between September 2012 and April 2014, without the authority of a waste management licence.