CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a mass burn incinerator at Javelin Park are unhappy because an objection to the facility from Natural England has not been published on Gloucestershire County Council’s website.

The non-departmental public body, which works to preserve England’s natural environment, responded to a consultation on the proposed incinerator at the end of May but over a month later its objection has still not been put online.

Instead, a message referring to Natural England on GCC’s website says ‘no consultations have been made on this case’.

The failure to upload Natural England’s response has angered members of anti-incineration group GlosVAIN, who are crying foul and suggesting that GCC is not uploading material to its website which paints the incinerator project in a bad light.

Last week, the SNJ revealed that a report commissioned by GCC had recommended refusing planning permission for the waste burner because two rare species of bat had been discovered at the site.

That report, completed by Bureau Veritas, was removed from the authority’s website less than 24 hours after it had been put online.

GCC has also come under fire in the past for failing to upload public comments concerning the planning application to its website.

In response to GCC’s consultation, Natural England again raises concerns about the impact of the facility on Barbastelle and Greater Horseshoe bats inhabiting Javelin Park.

Natural England’s core objection relates to the visual impact of the plant and its accompanying smoke plume, however.

The organisation says "the scale of the development would be inherently at odds with the character of the Severn Vale landscape" and adds that "there is little scope for effective mitigation."

Urbaser Balfour Beatty – the company hoping to build the incinerator – has described its design as ‘sympathetic to the characteristics and local history of the area’.

However, Natural England says the facility would have ‘significant adverse impacts on the special qualities of the Cotswold AONB’.

Although Javelin Park is 1.3 km from the AONB boundary, Natural England says the development would have a ‘long-term, significant and adverse’ impact on views from it.

The public body also says that views from The Cotswold Way National Trail, which was last week named one of the seven wonders of the Cotswolds, will be ‘adversely affected to a significant degree’.

GlosVAIN spokesman Ian Richens, said: "Natural England’s objection should be publicly available on the county council’s website.

"It is odd how the stuff which is fairly innocuous gets uploaded pretty quickly but anything contentious is kept offline or taken down."

A spokesman for GCC said the response from Natural England would be uploaded to the website shortly.

"Whilst we don’t publish all correspondence, as part of our planning process we do put all responses to formal public consultations online, this isn’t something all councils do,” they added.