Waste disposal scheme 'missed chance to improve recycling'

Hugely contentious proposals to include an incinerator at the first plant of its type in the countryside between York and Harrogate have provoked intense opposition from local communities and action groups.

Detailed plans for the project spanning the next 25 years were unveiled this week under a 900m deal which will be the biggest contract ever awarded by North Yorkshire County Council and York Council.

The scheme will involve a series of recycling techniques on the same site to handle up to 320,000 tonnes of waste a year, although the most controversial element will be the introduction of a rubbish incinerator.

Campaigners from the North Yorkshire-based pressure group, DISC, which was established to block incineration in the county, launched a scathing attack on the scheme, which they have claimed imposes a "financial straight jacket" on the two councils at a time when public sector funding is being slashed by the Government. Chairman of DISC David Andrews maintained that far greater efforts should be made to ensure individuals took more responsibility for recycling themselves.

While Mr Andrews admitted there had been significant changes in the public's perception of recycling in recent years, he pointed towards the huge successes in reducing the amount of waste in cities such as San Francisco.

Communities in Germany, Belgium and Italy have all followed the lead of the Californian city to increase recycling rates to above 70 per cent. In North Yorkshire, however, rates are as low as 28 per cent in areas such as the Harrogate district, although efforts are underway to reach a target of recycling at least 50 per cent of waste by 2020.

But Mr Andrews said: "We need to be more ambitious to achieve far higher recycling targets rather than relying on this one plant for waste management in North Yorkshire over the next 25 years.

"It really is financial lunacy that we are being tied into this scheme over the long-term and it is now an out-dated business model. It's certainly the one with the greatest impact on the lives of those who live and work in this region and on generations to come. Sadly they have gone for an easy option that is quite simply the wrong decision."

Parish councillors have already spoken out against the proposals and Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones is backing to the campaign to halt the proposals for the incinerator.

However, senior council officials maintained the waste management plant presents taxpayers with "cost certainty" after Ministers revealed landfill taxes will escalate by 50 per cent by 2015. The waste management strategy is aimed at saving taxpayers up to 320m over the next quarter of a century.

North Yorkshire County Council's new chief executive, Richard Flinton, admitted more needed to be done to boost recycling rates.

But he added: "We are confident that what we are considering will give us a sustainable waste management solution which is both affordable and environmentally acceptable."

A public consultation is now under way before the two councils meet in October to decide on the proposals. Construction could begin at the end of next year if planning permission is secured, and the plant could be operational by 2014.