If the council insisted on going ahead with the project, protesters would gather 20,000 signatures to petition the court for the project to be cancelled, residents' leader Prayuth Kasemkomet said.

Bangkok Deputy City Clerk Pichai Chaipotpanich said the meeting was being called to hear complaints and get opinions from local residents. The BMA and the contractor would clarify details of plans to prevent environmental problems.

When asked about the residents' insistence that the BMA would have to move the site, Pichai said: "If the depot construction is cancelled, what should we do with the garbage from their houses?"

The project was approved when Samak Sundaravej was at the helm of the BMA. It includes building a depot for 253 garbage trucks and a wastewater treatment system.

Local residents submitted a complaint to the police and the BMA recently. They have asked for the project site - on a 31-rai plot at Soi Sai Mai 74-76 - to be moved and say a garbage truck depot shouldn't be located in the heart of a residential area.

The site was surrounded by 70 communities, Prayuth said. It was situated next to a public park, only 200 metres from his village, Srivimol Ville, 400 metres from private schools and about a kilometre from a hospital and a fresh-food market.

"We believed it will cause more problems, including a bad smell, noise pollution and the surface of the community road will be damaged by the 253 heavily laden trucks driving in and out the depot around the clock," he said.

Governor Apirak Kosayodhin has ordered an urgent inquiry into the project after a complaint was laid. He assigned Deputy Bangkok Governor Puttipong Punnakan to oversee the matter.

Construction began in January but the contractor did not set up a notice board or inform residents about what the project was.

"First, we heard a rumour that it was a department store being built. But finally we sent a letter to the BMA and were told that it was a garbage truck depot," Prayuth said.

The residents have asked the BMA to halt the project until a public hearing and an environmental impact study are conducted.

Prayuth said after the petition from the residents, the contractor installed a signboard at the site which said only that it was a construction project for office buildings and a parking lot and would be completed by mid-December.

The project contradicted the council's policy to make the city an environmentally sound place for people to live, he said.

"We will admire the governor if he decides to change the site and turn it into a ground for sport instead," Prayuth said.

Chatrarat Kaewmorakot

The Nation