Incinerator plan wins backing from council executives

The proposals, to award a 25-year contract to an international waste management firm called AmeyCespa – the biggest contract ever awarded in North Yorkshire – to build a waste management site between York and Harrogate were approved yesterday.

They will now go before both full councils for a vote within the next two weeks.

The news is a hammer blow to protesters who have waged an intense grassroots campaign and collected nearly 10,000 signatures on a petition to prevent the plant being built. But they are refusing to give up the fight.

Steve Wright, chair of North Yorkshire Waste Action Group (NYWAG), said: "We are very disappointed and believe both executives have made the wrong decision.

"The next generation will be extremely unhappy with the decision that was made.

"But we believe there is still a very good chance that this will be overturned at full council."

Most campaigners say the councils should be looking at alternatives to incineration and that 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.

But this week, Coun Christian Vassie, York Council's energy champion and a vocal critic of the plans, has written to Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, asking for him to intervene to ensure the incinerator is built closer to York.

"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a solution that will benefit residents for the coming decades and address security of energy supply issues", he said.

"We must ensure we make the right decision and not pour hundreds of millions of pounds of heat into the air.

"I'm in favour of an incinerator but it must not be situated in the middle of nowhere to become a wasteful white elephant."

Senior officials from both councils have claimed the proposed plant is vital to avoid millions of pounds in fines for waste ending up in landfill and to ensure they reach recycling rates of at least 50 per cent by 2020.