THERE is never any point in taunting ourselves with ‘could have’, or ‘would have’ or ‘should have.’ The contract between Gloucestershire County Council and Balfour Beatty should NEVER have been signed, we know that, we have said it time and time again and we still haven’t changed our minds.

This incinerator proposal at Javelin Park has become a hideous debacle which despite being unanimously rejected keeps coming back to haunt us like a cockroach that refuses to die.

And now we are having to muster all our strength – again – to fight what is a horrible, impending blot on our landscape.

Thankfully the people of Stroud have a long history of standing up for what is right and for what they passionately believe in as was witnessed by the hundreds marching through the town on Saturday in protest against that decision.

The sensible thing to do, for us the taxpayers (a significant point which seems to have escaped GCC) is to cancel this contract.

Yes on the surface it might look like madness as there is an eye-watering penalty involved – the only group that was ever going to benefit from this was UBB which was always in a win-win situation. That’s an unforgivable position for the council to have put us in. But when the figures are stripped back it (the penalty) is not that frightening.

This £500 million contract over 25 years is going to cost an average of £20 million a year. If we cancel the contract and choose the alternative MBT system the savings on a 25 year contract are estimated at between £315 million and £364 million.

That is money that could be better spent elsewhere.

When is the council going to accept that we don’t need this incinerator. We don’t want it and we are certainly not going to roll over and accept it lightly.