IT IS hard to believe that in a democracy a public, accountable, authority has been allowed to spend so much taxpayers’ money on something the majority of people don’t want.

Worse it continues to keep people in the dark about the true cost of what is fast becoming a folly.

The application to spend £500 million on an incinerator at Javelin Park was unanimously refused in March 2013.

Gloucestershire County Council had already spent £3 million of our money prior to this before it was refused by its own committee members.

This contract was signed without any planning approval.

The clause said GCC would have to pay a staggering penalty charge if it was cancelled was signed without any approval.

The council then funded the appeal against its own decision to refuse, to the tune of £346,000.

You just couldn’t make it up.

And now as every day passes until Secretary of State Eric Pickles makes his decision, we are all left wondering how much more this is going to cost to cancel if the decision finally goes against the incinerator.

Councillors are quite right to be asking questions.

We need to know and we have a right to know how much more this is likely to cost given – it has now been on appeal for more than a year.

Last year we endured an eye-watering round of financial cuts to essential services and we are braced for more this year.

Since it was first suggested in 2005 the proposal to build an incinerator at Javelin Park has been shambolic.

Continuing to spend our money on this farcical project is not only shameful but downright immoral.