THE Campaign to Protect Rural England has become the latest organisation to ask the communities secretary Eric Pickles to 'call-in' the controversial planning application for the £500 million incinerator at Javelin Park.

CPRE's Gloucestershire branch has joined a growing list of bodies calling on the secretary of state to intervene and appoint a government inspector to decide the application.

Stroud District Council, Stroud Town Council and Nailsworth Town Council are among those authorities which have already called on Mr Pickles to take the application away from Gloucestershire County Council and hand it to an independent planning inspector.

CPRE Gloucestershire said it was requesting that the application be called-in because it feared the proposed development near Haresfield would damage the nationally important Cotswold AONB and would amount to 'a totally inefficient use of taxpayers' money'.

The politically independent charity, which works to promote the conservation of rural England, also said it was worried because GCC had 'such a strong financial interest in the project' and was rejecting rational arguments against it simply to save face.

Last September, the SNJ revealed that GCC could have to pay Urbaser Balfour Beatty in the region of £15 million if the authority's own planning committee turned down the application.

Nick Dummett, of CPRE Gloucestershire, said: "It is difficult for the public to have confidence that any decision by the councillors on the planning committee will be based on a balanced view of the arguments for and against the project.

"If the secretary of state chooses to call in the application, he will appoint an independent planning inspector to conduct an inquiry - this is a fair and transparent way for all parties to put their case."

Last month, anti-incineration campaigners from GlosVAIN launched a Government e-petition asking for the project to be called-in.

The petition, which has attracted more than 650 signatures in less than a month, can be signed online at: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43257

A GCC spokesman said: "We are working hard to deliver a fair planning process, that gives everyone the chance to have their say.

"The Department of Communities and Local Government has made it clear some months ago that they will not call in an application at this stage, as a result, we will continue to work on the application so it's ready for determination by the planning committee."