The plan, by the Angus Cereal Partnership in conjunction with farmers' co-operative Grainfarmers, would see some 90,000 tonnes of cereals processed at the facility, housed directly adjacent to the existing Glen Esk Maltings in Kinnaber Road.

But the proposal has already drawn criticism from locals and neighbours of the site, and they this week submitted a 382 name petition to Angus Council detailing their concerns about the project.

These include claims that dust from the processing of cereals would create airborne allergens, would directly affect residents' quality of life, would put excessive pressure on the local transport infrastructure, and house prices would be reduced because of the loss of view.

The organiser of the petition, Caroline Kerr – whose house in Sinclair Gardens lies just yards from the proposed site – said those who signed the petition were also intending to submit individual objections to the scheme.

Grainfarmers' development director, Rob Sanderson, said he was aware of the concerns the residents had over the proposal, having heard them at a public meeting in Hillside earlier this year. He hopes Grainfarmers and ACP could work with the community in an effort to find a solution that would be at least partly if not wholly agreeable to all parties concerned.

He said: "I can understand and appreciate the concerns, as discussed with the community council in May. At the moment we've got to look at all the facts and the issues with that.

"We want to be as considerate as we can be and listen to the views of the community."

But Mr Sanderson said there was no truth to claims by residents that any dust generated by the site's operations would exacerbate conditions such as asthma or hayfever, and said rumours of 24-hour intake were also false – that figure relating instead to the target time to collect crops destined for the facility following harvest.

He also moved to dismiss fears that the four jobs created by the construction of the site would only be seasonal, saying they would be employed on a full time basis and actually supplemented with additional staff during the busy harvest period.

He said: "This isn't going to happen overnight. This will be an evolving process taking around five or six years.

"This is a massive opportunity for arable farmers in this part of Scotland and the benefits will spread far.

"The reason we want to develop this site is because the maltings is there and it needs raw materials. If the maltings was not there we would not be looking at this site.

"The application is in now and the planning process must run its course. That will involve discussions with the community and consultations. There's a lot to discuss yet. What we've got to try and do is find a workable solution that at least partly suits everyone."

Currently, the Glen Esk Maltings takes in some 60,000 tonnes a year of malting barley. Mr Sanderson said the construction of the storage and treatment facility would take some 3 million food miles off the road per annum.

Meanwhile, Mr Sanderson said there had been a significant amount of interest in the scheme from local arable farmers, who he said recognised the possible benefit such a facility would have for their operations.