AN INCINERATOR at Sutton Courtenay looks set to win planning permission, despite the scheme losing out on the contract to deal with Oxfordshire’s waste.

Protestors are furious Oxfordshire County Council officers have recommended councillors approve the plans on Monday, saying that developer Waste Recycling Group (WRG) could use the permission to transform the plant into a waste hub for southern England.

Last month, councillors voted to award a contract to handle the county’s municipal non-recycled waste to rival firm Viridor, which wants to build an incinerator at Ardley, near Bicester, instead of Sutton Courtenay.

Planning applications for both sites had already been submitted before the contract decision and will both be debated on Monday.

WRG said it was only keeping its application on the table in case the Ardley scheme fails.

WRG is seeking backing to extend its current site to build an incinerator capable of handling 220,000 tonnes of waste every year.

The process of cleaning gases produced by the incinerator would create 12,000 tonnes of waste each year, which would be buried on site.

Robin Draper, of Sutton Courtenay Against The Incinerator (SCAI), said: “Unless one of the applications is defeated, it is likely two incinerators will be built.

“Ardley would deal with the county council’s municipal waste, leaving WRG to address commercial waste, and waste from outside the county. That would create a waste centre and a hazardous waste dump for a large section of the South.”

Fellow SCAI campaigner Edmund Rowley-Williams said planning officers had ignored the public’s concerns and their report was “yet another twist of the knife to local democracy”.

But WRG spokesman Harry Hudson said: “Until financial close of the contract there is no certainty that the preferred solution proposed by Viridor will proceed.

“Therefore, it is appropriate that the planning application should be considered on its merits, separate from the tender process.”

He added: “WRG thinks it unlikely that it would be viable to proceed with the development unless it were to be awarded the Oxfordshire County Council residual waste contract, and has therefore indicated that it is willing for any planning permission to be linked to that contract.”

Ardley residents have also vowed to keep fighting against an incinerator in their village.

Jonathan O’Neill, of Ardley Against the Incinerator, urged protestors from 19 surrounding villages to write to councillors urging them to vote down the plans.

He said: “Unless we have the money to go to Judicial Review, this is technically the last chance we have to fight this thing. This is a last gasp chance.

“There are better technologies out there we should be investing in for the next 25 years.”

SCAI wants protestors to picket County Hall from 8.30am to 10am on Monday.

abingdon@oxfordmail.co.uk