Hammer blow for campaigners as planners back incinerator

Protesters have waged an intense grassroots campaign to prevent the waste management plant being built between York and Harrogate.

However, officers from both York Council and North Yorkshire County Council have drawn up detailed reports which have supported the proposals.

Senior councillors on the executives of both authorities are now being asked to approve plans to award the 25-year contract to the preferred bidder, an international waste management firm called AmeyCespa.

The deal is due to be the biggest contract ever awarded by North Yorkshire County Council and York Council.

Campaigners yesterday made an impassioned plea to senior councillors to go against their own officers' advice and look towards other schemes instead of incineration.

Opponents have stressed more emphasis should be placed on boosting recycling rates and other technologies such as anaerobic digestion, where micro-organisms break down biodegradable material to produce green energy.

Coun John Savage, who sits on both North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council, has been one of the most vocal critics of the scheme.

Coun Savage resigned from the Tories and is now a Liberal Party member after he expressed deep misgivings over the financial implications of the multi-million- pound contract.

He said: "It really is make or break time, and I would implore my fellow councillors to look at these proposals very carefully indeed.

"It is no exaggeration to say that this is perhaps the biggest decision they will take as a member of the council. There are other alternatives out there which should be considered instead of committing so much money to a 25-year contract at a time when all local authorities are having to make millions of pounds in cuts."

Members of the executives for both York Council and the county council will meet on Tuesday next week to discuss the plans to award the contract to AmeyCespa.

However, a final decision will not be made until a full council meeting of York Council on December 9, which will be followed by a full council meeting of the county council six days later.

Campaigners from the North Yorkshire Waste Action Group (NYWAG) have pledged to continue to fight the proposals despite learning of the council officers' recommendations for approval. Its chairman, Steve Wright, said: "It is a great disappointment, but not unexpected. We have always maintained that this is financial madness, it is unnecessary and unwanted. We just hope that councillors see sense and do not approve the scheme."

Senior officials from both councils have claimed that the proposed plant is vital to avoid millions of pounds in fines for waste ending up in landfill.

They stressed that keeping the status quo is not an option after the Government announced that landfill taxes would rise by 50 per cent by 2015.

The new plant, which is due to be built at Allerton Park, is aimed at ensuring the two councils reach a target of recycling at least 50 per cent of waste by 2020.

It will also use mechanical sorting and anaerobic digestion to produce green energy.

However, the incinerator is the most contentious element of the proposed scheme, which is projected to save taxpayers up to 320m over 25 years.

NYWAG members were joined by two of the county's MPs, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones and his colleague Nigel Adams, who represents the Selby and Ainsty constituency, when they handed a petition containing more than 9,000 signatures in to Downing Street last week.

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