A garbage transit site on the shore of Dartmouth, N.S., has been shut down after neighbours complained about the noise and smell.

Shore Road is becoming an exclusive area for real estate, offering large, expensive homes with unobstructed views of the harbour.

Edge Marine and Disposal had been using a Shore Road pier to land barges carrying trash from cruise ships and transferring it to its Burnside facility at 93 Gloria McCluskey Ave.

John Houston's home overlooks the pier. He said it was a noisy, smelly operation that worked late into the night.

He said the cruise-ship trash came from all over the world and brought some unpleasant surprises.

"We had a neighbour [whose] cat came home with a raw roast in its mouth and the roast was bigger than the cat itself," he said.

"With international garbage, you don't know how it is treated, and with garbage being by water you're bound to get infestation, so yes, we were concerned."

Lacking proper permits

He called his councillor, Gloria McCluskey, and she looked into it.

"I was really surprised to see how much garbage was being brought in here this summer. I had no idea they were bringing garbage from the cruise ships until this summer," she said.

She took the complaint to City Hall staff. It turned out the operation did not have the proper zoning to transit trash at the pier and it was shut down.

McCluskey said Edge will have to find another place to land.

Not all neighbours wanted the company ousted. Wilfred Jack has lived on Shore Drive for 40 years. He said he had never noticed a smell or been bothered by noise.

"I think it's terrible myself because there goes another 12 people that is going to lose their jobs," he said. "And not only that, but what are the cruise ships going to do now?"

Edge Marine and Disposal has not said what it will do.