Residents urged to step-up fight against controversial scheme

North Yorkshire County Council agreed to the extension following a meeting last Thursday with members of Marton-cum-Grafton Parish Council, one of the main objectors to the proposals - just a day before a major consultation came to an end. Objectors will now have until the end of January to submit their responses to the authority.

Bob Schofield, a spokesman for the North Yorkshire Waste Action Group (NYWAG), put the u-turn down to planning chiefs recognising the application failed to deal with a number of key issues.

He said: “I think in a way it’s down to a recommendation on behalf of the parish council that such an enormous application running to 2,000 pages requires quite a considerable amount of work in order to respond properly.

“I also believe the reason why the county council decided to extend the deadline was that the parish council representatives raised quite a considerable number of issues that the planning officer didn’t have answers to. The answers were not covered in the application so he averred that he was going to go back to the applicant to try and secure these answers. From our point of view it’s certainly helpful to have a bit more time to be able to present a thorough response to the application.”

The multi-million pound plant, which is earmarked for a site between York and Harrogate at Allerton Park, is one of the biggest applications ever to be considered by the local authority. The scale of the project means that the application is unlikely to be considered by councillors for up to another year to give council officers time to analyse the proposals.

The scheme will involve a series of recycling techniques operating from the same site to handle up to 320,000 tonnes of waste a year, although the most contentious element will be the incinerator. The county council and York Council both approved plans in December last year to award the £1bn contract for the waste management plant to an international firm, AmeyCespa. A full planning application was submitted by the developer in September.

NWYAG, which has collected more than 10,000 signatures against the plans, and its sister campaign York Residents Against Incineration (YRAIN) are lobbying the Government alongside the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Andrew Jones, to get a final decision wrested away from the county council to be made by a planning inspector instead.

Mr Schofield said: “A considerable number of objections have be received by the county council. In addition to those sent by groups and organisations there have been a lot of individual objections.

“One disappointment, however, is York Council, which met last Thursday. Despite being advised of additional time to respond and being aware that Harrogate Borough Council was planning to take advantage of that time, the council decided to raise no objections.”

But Mr Schofield said he remained optimistic the Communities and Local Government Minister Eric Pickles will call in the application, and added: “We have a lot of support from MPs, parish councils and town and borough councils and thousands of people have signed out petition. We remain hopeful Mr Pickles will consider this an application that should be called in and determined by an inspector. In the meantime we are urging people to take advantage of the extra time and write to the local authority with their views about this application.”

A county council spokesman said: “The formal consultation period ended on December 16 and we have not extended that deadline. We will, however, continue to accept responses to the planning application until the county planning authority is in a position to make a decision.”