CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a huge incinerator in Gloucestershire are one step closer after councillors voted against cancelling the £500million contract to run the burner.

Gloucestershire County Council members voted 27 to 24 in favour of upholding the contract with Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB), after a Labour motion called for the authority to axe the agreement to manage the planned burner at Javelin Park near Stroud.

A petition with 7,600 signatures against the incinerator was handed in to councillors before the meeting at Shire Hall yesterday.

All three UKIP councillors voted in favour of maintaining the contract, drawing the ire of anti-incinerator campaign group GlosVAIN.

After the decision, campaigner Sue Oppenhiemer said: "It was just so disappointing to see an issue entirely agreed on party lines and seeing UKIP councillors playing the role of deciders on this and not listening to many many thousands of local people."

However, during the course of the meeting UKIP group leader, Cllr Alan Preest, had said that the party’s councillors were not being forced to vote a particular way.

GlosVAIN is now hoping that Stroud District Council is successful with its legal challenge against Secretary of State Eric Pickles’ decision to give the incinerator the go ahead.

He approved the scheme after UBB appealed against the county council’s decision to reject a planning application for the incinerator despite already agreeing the contract to run the facility.