We have long been critics of Oxfordshire County Council’s market-based approach to coming up with a plan for the county’s excess waste.

The council decided that it would let the market dictate what was best for Oxfordshire rather than itself examining the different solutions and coming up with what it felt was best for the county.

The result has been a huge and angry debate about incinerators, with many rightly decrying the fact that we have had no say inwhat process is used to deal with excess waste.

Now we now face the prospect of two incinerators winning planning permission, one at Ardley in the north of the county and one in the south at Sutton Courtenay.

It may be that the Sutton Courtenay planning permission is never enacted because the company behind it has not won the contract to deal with Oxfordshire’s waste.

If, however, it is enacted to deal with someone else’s waste, it will be a huge price to pay for the approach taken by the county council.