Council chiefs in York spent more than £400,000 on consultants over a controversial waste incinerator last year.

The money was used to pay legal, technical and financial experts for preparing the ground for the £900 million incinerator at Allerton quarry and landfill site, between York and Harrogate, as part of a joint scheme between City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

The plant is being backed by £65 million in private finance initiative (PFI) funding, with the two authorities having awarded a 25-year contract to build and operate the incinerator to Amey Cespa.

The councils have said it will dramatically reduce their waste bills and cut the amount they have to pay in landfill tax, with a planning application for the scheme set to go before the county council.

City of York Council’s accounts for 2010/11 show £400,940.76 was spent on “professional fees” during the year, covering its contribution towards the overall cost of the Allerton Park scheme, with the authority being invoiced on five occasions by the county council.

Campaigners who have called for the incinerator proposals to be dropped and alternatives considered said the cost to the council would keep rising over the years and branded the scheme “a white elephant”.

The York council’s planning committee agreed to raise no objections to the waste plant when it met before Christmas, although the final decision is down to the county council.

The deadline for views on the application to be submitted has been extended to the end of January.

Patrick Looker, City of York Council’s finance manager, said: “Under the terms of the agreement with North Yorkshire County Council, City of York Council pays 25 per cent of the total costs relating to the PFI scheme.

“The consultants’ costs relate to legal, technical and financial advisors required to support the councils through complex contractual negotiations. Although we recognise this is a substantial financial commitment for the authority, the estimated cost of dealing with waste in North Yorkshire and York if the Allerton Park project does not proceed is £1.7 billion, significantly higher than the cost of pursuing the PFI.”

Richard Lane, of the York Residents Against Incineration campaign group, said: “This expenditure is just the tip of the iceberg as it is going to increase tremendously over the years.

“It is ludicrous to suggest that this money is being spent because the alternative is doing nothing. Nobody is suggesting doing nothing, but the expenditure cannot be justified in that way because smaller, more environmentally friendly alternatives have not been costed.

“The money spent on this oversized white elephant is going to keep going up and that could mean cuts in services to meet those costs.”