Residents have protested in the past about the landfill site

Earlier this month the Welsh Assembly Government ordered Wrexham Council not to make a decision about the site at Hafod Quarry, Johnstown.

Protestors said this was a sign that the planning application would be called in by Cardiff.

However, local councillors will now finally decide its fate.

Planning permission for landfill has existed at the Hafod site since 1995 but no tipping has ever taken place.

Hafod quarry could become a wildlife reserve if local people win

However, Mersey Waste wants planing permission to modify the site and make it smaller, claiming it would take the site further away from houses.

The assembly government intervened a couple of weeks ago when wrote to the councillors asking them not to make a decision.

However, they have since said that the matter is "a local issue and needs to be decided by the council".

Campaigners have now submitted their own planning application to change the site from landfill to a nature reserve.

Local resident Pauline Smout said she is disappointed that the assembly has left the decision making to Wrexham Council.

"We would have liked a broader discussion of the issues," she said.

"The landfill site is far too close to housing and the old permission is 10 years old and outdated."

Residents are concerned that the landfill would produce dioxins - an unwanted by-product of some heating processes.

Other landfill sites in Wrexham include the Pen-y-Bont site in Newbridge and Gardden Road in Ruabon.