Residents are angry that trainloads of ash from carcasses burned in the foot-and-mouth outbreak are being dumped in a landfill site.

They say there was no consultation over the arrival of the ash in claypits at Calvert, near Bicester. The landfill site is next to a development of 300 homes called Calvert Green being built on former brickworks.

Resident Mary Sever said: "The first trainload came on July 13. We are due to have two trainloads a week for another two months. This was imposed on us without warning. We already have trains coming in twice a day with household rubbish from west London and elsewhere."

Another resident, Teresa Harding, said: "The community is upset. I am concerned that potential buyers of the new houses might not learn about being next door to a landfill site."

The landfill site is just over the border in Buckinghamshire and criticism has come from the county council.

Deputy council leader Bill Chapple said: "We are shocked that the Government has said that Buckinghamshire must take this waste through the back door, since we have remained free of the disease. This action must surely produce some risk."

But Vicki Fox, a spokesman for Shanks, which operates the landfill site, said they had been in talks with the Government for some time over the disposal of ash, after the company had taken animal carcasses earlier.

She said they had asked for chemical analysis of the ash and were given this only last Wednesday.

Miss Fox said: "I telephoned many councils and other organisations. We are as open with the local community as we can be. We are one of the few companies which can handle the ash properly."

Shanks sprayed water on to the ash as it was being tipped into a trench.

Miss Fox added: "We can only take the ash when the wind speed is low."

The first trainload was between 800 and 900 tonnes and they were expecting two trains a week for eight to ten weeks. The maximum load was about 1,200 tonnes.

Di Smalec, a spokesman for Persimmon Homes, one of Calvert Green developers, said: "We have every confidence in Shanks and are positive that they will take all precautions necessary to ensure the safe disposal of waste.

"All sites are closely monitored on an ongoing basis and we are assured that there will be no impact on local residents."

She said they had information about the landfill site at their sales centre.