STROUD District Council is to legally challenge Eric Pickles over his decision to give Javelin Park’s controversial £500m incinerator the green light.

The Secretary of State for the department for communities and local government approved the waste burner last month, amid strong opposition.

A spokesman representing SDC said: “We have submitted papers to challenge the Secretary of State’s decision to approve the incinerator application.”

Gloucestershire County Council’s planning committee originally refused planning permission for the incinerator.

But Urbaser Balfour Beatty, the company contracted to build the facility, appealed.

Javier Peiro, Project Director for UBB, said “We are disappointed to learn that SDC has decided to submit an application to challenge the Secretary of State’s decision to grant permission for our application for an energy from waste facility at Javelin Park.

“The legal challenge would be against the secretary of state’s decision although UBB will have the opportunity to assist in defending the case. As such, we await the details of Stroud District Council’s application and we will co-operate fully with the process as required.”

SDC has assured the public that the cost of the legal challenge should not exceed £25,000.

A spokesman said: “The challenge is based upon the inspector’s interpretation of Gloucestershire’s waste core strategy, specifically landscape issues.

“At the inquiry held last year the district councils, county council and those previously involved in the drafting of the WCS were all surprised by the way that the inspector applied the elements of the strategy which were designed to protect the landscape.

“Our aim is to have those elements applied correctly, in the way that they were intended, and to limit any adverse landscape and subsequent economic impact and maintain the beauty and the economy of the county.”

In response to the legal challenge Cllr Ray Theodoulou, deputy leader of Gloucestershire County Council said: “Any judicial review would have to be about the way the secretary of state reached his decision, not about the merits of the scheme itself.

A contract for a waste plant in King’s Lynn, Norfolk was recently cancelled at a cost of £33.7 million to the county council.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Labour Parliamentary Candidate David Drew will urge councillors at Shire Hall to vote to cancel GCC’s contract with UBB.