AMIDST the recent environmental horror stories of the tyre inferno and the Government’s encouragement for the poisonous practice of fracking, there has been one little ray of sunshine.

This was the announcement that the councils of York and North Yorkshire have abandoned a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to withdraw £65million of PFI funding towards a waste incinerator. At a total cost of £1.4 billion this utter disgrace of a project was never affordable, and without the £65 million from the Government it is even less so.

It is time the councils woke up to this fact and started looking seriously at a ‘Plan B’ which would be much more environmentally conscious, it would be more localised, it would create more jobs, and crucially in these times of austerity a strategy working towards zero waste could be £100million cheaper than the incinerator project. Yes! Doing the right thing could actually be cheaper.

York Green Party and other concerned citizens of York and North Yorkshire have been calling for this since 2006. It’s time for a change in the thinking in these councils, instead of just blithely accepting whatever expensive solution the market wants to sell us.

Coun Dave Taylor, Green Party, Fishergate, New Walk Terrace, York.