THE Government has been warned by environmental campaigners that plans for new multimillion-pound incinerators in Yorkshire will be a “huge waste of public money”.

North Yorkshire County Council last month approved a £1.4 billion scheme for the Allerton Waste Recovery Park, between York and Harrogate, despite fierce opposition, as a joint initiative between the authority, City of York Council and operators AmeyCespa.

New incinerators are also planned for Leeds, Bradford and the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, but opponents say increased recycling will mean there is less waste to burn and the facilities will become obsolete. Simon Bowens, Friends of the Earth’s Yorkshire campaigner, said: “This demonstrates the huge contradiction in the way councils are dealing with waste, because their ambitious recycling targets just don’t fit with their proposals for massive waste burners to deal with rubbish.

“If you are building them here, there and everywhere, you can’t get enough waste to keep them running.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government is now deciding whether the Allerton scheme should be called in for a public inquiry. If it is not, work should start next year.