STROUD District Council is to consider withholding refuse from Gloucestershire County Council to ensure it does not get burnt in the controversial £500 million Javelin Park incinerator.

Green Party councillor Martin Whiteside (Thrupp) is to put forward a motion proposing that SDC keeps hold of the rubbish it collects and disposes of it in a more environmentally friendly way.

It has been seconded by Labour's Paul Denney (Cam West) and will be debated at full council meeting tomorrow night, Thursday.

Rather than simply handing over its rubbish to be burnt, the pair want SDC to send it to recycling providers.

Their motion calls for SDC to investigate 'the legal, financial and practical viability' of disposing of its own waste.

"We need to investigate ways of recycling much more, avoiding an expensive, inflexible, 25-year incineration contract," said Cllr Whiteside.

"The smart solution for the future should be good for the environment and good for the pockets of hard pressed council taxpayers."

Cllr Whiteside and Cllr Denney are hoping SDC will follow the example of King's Lynn and West Norfolk District Council which recently decided to withhold its black bag waste from Norfolk County Council.

Responding to the motion, Cllr Stan Waddington, GCC's waste champion, said: "SDC has a legal obligation to dispose of its waste via the county council, which we can enforce if necessary."

"What the Green's propose would see Stroud paying twice to get rid of their waste - which would be a massive burden to council taxpayers in the district.

"In any event, this would not have a significant impact on our plans for residual waste in Gloucestershire, with the capacity to make up any unexpected shortfall in domestic waste from local commercial and industrial waste."

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THE construction of a £24 million mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant in Westbury, Wiltshire has been completed.
 

Built by Swindon-based Halls Waste Solutions, the plant will process Wiltshire County Council's black bag rubbish.
 

Unlike incinerators, which simply burn the waste delivered to them, MBT plants sort through the refuse, removing material which can be recycled or reused, like valuable metals.
 

Anti-incineration campaigners in Gloucestershire believe MBT is a more environmentally friendly alternative to the mass burn facility being proposed by Gloucestershire County Council.
 

GCC's planning committee is set to decide later this month whether or not to award permission for the incinerator.

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OFFICIALS from the Environment Agency are running a public consultation on their draft decision to award Urbaser Balfour Beatty a permit to run the Javelin Park incinerator.
 

Before it makes a final decision to grant the company an environmental permit, the EA is giving anyone with an interest in the development the opportunity to review documents which explain how it arrived at its decision.
 

Urbaser will not be allowed to operate the plant unless it is granted a permit.
 

The agency's public consultation opens today, Wednesday, and will last for seven weeks, closing on Friday, April 12.
 

Residents can comment on the agency's draft decision documents at a drop-in session on Tuesday, March 12, in Stonehouse Town Hall, from 3pm to 7pm.
 

They can also comment by going to consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/portal - emailing psc@environment-agency.gov.uk or in writing to PSC-EP team, Quadrant 2, 99 Parkway Avenue, Sheffield, S9 4FW.
 

For more information visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk/javelinpark

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GLOSVAIN's campaign against the incinerator was featured on BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme yesterday, Tuesday.

The episode called Dash for Ash looked at alternatives to incineration and landfill. Listen to the broadcast at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4wn