A company owned by Norfolk County Council spent £7m to build a composting plant which had to stop dealing with food waste just three years later because of complaints about the smell.
And critics branded the plant a "white elephant" after it emerged it has also now stopped processing green waste - even though its owners had agreed a lease up until 2035.
Renting the plant, off Buxton Road in Marsham, initially cost an annual £50,000 but, following rent reviews, the annual outgoings, including costs such as electricity charges, maintenance and emptying of surface water lagoons, had reached £125,000 a year.
The composting facility was supposed to take 32,000 tonnes of garden and food waste when Norse Environmental Waste Services (NEWS) built it in 2010.
It cost £6.9m, financed by the Norfolk County Council-owned company, together with a further £800,000 through a Waste Resources Action Plan (WRAP) grant.
There was opposition to the scheme during the planning stages, with people living nearby concerned about lorry traffic, smells, noise and dust.
And, in 2014, just three years after it opened, NEWS stopped all food waste processing at the plant.
That came after more than 250 complaints to the Environment Agency, mainly about the smell.
While the plant continued to process green waste, it has now emerged, following a Freedom Of Information Act request by John Martin, a retired solicitor from Holt, that it stopped doing that in 2021.
Norse surrendered its environmental permit last year, so the plant was only in operation for a decade.
And Norse had agreed a 25-year lease, with the farming company which owns the land the plant was built on, which runs until 2035 with no breakpoint.
That has meant Norse has been paying outgoings, such as rent, which had reached £125,000 a year.
However, Norse bosses said some of those costs would now be picked up by a third party after a deal was agreed to sub-let the plant.
A Norse spokesman said: "The facility was originally designed to process two-thirds green waste and one-third food waste but due to the profile of food waste collections across the Norfolk waste collection authorities, this blend was never achieved successfully.
"The odour complaints were attributable to the food waste element of the process and this ultimately led to the cessation of processing this material.
"Norse is contractually obliged to keep paying the lease costs to 2035, but this has now been largely mitigated by a sub-lease arrangement with a third-party company.
"The other fixed and variable costs included within this £125,000 per annum, including standing electricity charges and surface water lagoon emptying, have now passed over to the new occupants of the site."
The WRAP funding - a grant to encourage recycling given by the charity - has not had to be paid back.
Mr Martin said: "The only winner in this sorry saga is the local farming company, which has a hefty guaranteed income until 2035.
"To me, this bears all the hallmarks of yet another council white elephant, albeit one that seems until now to have slipped under the radar.
"And if there is an investigation into why this was ever allowed to happen, the responsible individuals in County Hall, as usual, will never be held to account."
A Norfolk County Council spokeswoman said: "The composting facility was built and paid for by Norse, with some additional funding from WRAP, and was run by Norse on a commercial basis."
A Norse spokesman, on criticism that the scheme was a white elephant on which taxpayers' money had been wasted, said: "This is a matter of opinion and not something for Norse to comment on."
Norse Group was formed in 2006 to serve as the holding company for Norse Commercial Services and NPS Property Services, which County Hall created in 2002.
The group's work includes handling waste management, running Norfolk's tips and maintaining and managing the county's roads.
Through Norse Care, it also runs 21 residential homes and 15 housing with care schemes in Norfolk, while the group also provides services for other councils and organisations across the country.
The board of directors for Norse Group includes a Norfolk County Council-appointed chairman, who serves as a non-executive director - currently Andy Wood.
A county councillor also sits on the board as a non-executive director - currently Greg Peck.
In 2022/23, Norfolk County Council, which needs to plug a budget gap of at least £46.2m next year, paid Norse Group £126.4m. The company has a £350m turnover.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here