MP backs residents in waste incinerator fight

Campaigners have turned out in force to demand that councillors scrap plans that could result in an incinerator being built on their doorstep.

Residents and politicians, including North West Leicestershire MP David Taylor, yesterday expressed anger at Leicestershire County Council buying two plots of land in Bardon, near Coalville.

At a protest at County Hall, in Glenfield, yesterday, they accused the council of trying to dump its problems on their area by considering a waste-treatment facility there.

They say, in the last year, the council has also attempted to use the district for controversial schemes such as travellers' sites and a possible alternative to the Pennbury eco-town.

Coun Nicholas Rushton, cabinet member for waste, told protesters the land in Bardon would be offered to private companies, which would bid to divert up to half the county's waste away from landfill by 2015.

However, waste businesses would also have the choice to use Whetstone tip, or even come up with their own location, of which he believes there are likely to be at least six.

County Hall has found that the best option to reduce the rubbish it buries would be to incinerate it.

However, the council says no final decision on the technology has been made. It is up to the companies to offer their solutions.

Council studies found that the only other viable option would be to have a ball mill, which sorts household waste mechanically, similar to the one in Beaumont Leys, Leicester.

MP Mr Taylor said: "I think this has been appallingly handled. If this was built in Bardon, it would damage the area economically, environmentally and socially.

"The problems that the county council seems to have are being sent in our direction."

For three months after buying the Bardon land, at Interlink Business Park, council bosses had refused to discuss the site's location.

Councillors were told they would be disciplined if they spoke out, as the information was commercially sensitive.

County councillor Paul Hyde said: "My democratic right to represent this community has been stopped by a gagging order."

Residents have set up the Ellistown and Battleflat Incinerator Action Group.

Chairman David Perrins said: "There are significant health risks with incineration and Friends of the Earth agree with this."

The council will hear next week whether the Government will provide half of the £130 million cost of the facility chosen.

If successful, waste companies will be invited to bid for the contract from October, with the winner, which will pay the other £65 million, announced in May 2010.

Coun Rushton said: "No decisions have been taken on the kind of facility, nor a site."