CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for an incinerator in Northwich have challenged the basis for such a facility.

At the ongoing public inquiry into Cheshire County Council's Draft Replacement Waste Local Plan, Lostock Gralam Parish Council and the Cheshire Anti-Incinerator Network (CHAIN) revealed figures countering the official line that the amount of waste produced in Cheshire is increasing.

Council chiefs have pinned their case for the Plan, which includes the option of a 'thermal treatment' plant at a site in Lostock, on the need to dispose of 2.5m tonnes of waste produced in the county each year. But Lostock councillor

and campaigner Ann McEllin told Government inspector Andrew Mead those figures were greatly exaggerated.

She said: 'We provided evidence which shows that if all district councils in Cheshire introduce the same waste collection scheme as Vale Royal, thermal treatment of household waste becomes uneconomic for Cheshire.

'The county seemed to imply in its waste plan that the major driver for increasing waste treatment plants in Cheshire was the need to divert waste from landfill.

'But results for the last five years show that waste being

sent to landfill in Cheshire is declining rapidly. In fact, waste companies have started importing waste from outside the Cheshire boundary - last year, 33% of waste sent to the three biggest landfills in Cheshire had been imported.

'We raised the concern at the inquiry that if the waste plan proved to be unduly pessimistic about the amount of waste produced in Cheshire, we could end up importing huge quantities of waste into the county to keep the plants running.

'And we pointed out that the composting plant already given planning consent would process 150,000 tonnes of organic

waste a year. This one plant, located in Lostock, could deal with most of Cheshire's household organic waste. We argued that for Cheshire to promote more waste facilities in Lostock was clearly unfair, as it placed an undue burden on one community.'

Cllr McEllin said Vale Royal Borough Council made similar representations, pointing out that the concentration of waste treatment plants in Northwich would jeopardise plans for the Northwich Vision and would have an adverse effect on the East Northwich neighbour-hood renewal projects.

The public inquiry is now in recess until the end of October with the recommendations due in early spring.