AS someone who has worked in the waste management industry and, therefore, seen and smelt the full horror of waste transfer stations and refuse incinerators, I went to the public meeting to hear about plans for York to have its own waste incinerator.

I was surprised to find that City of York Council's plans to borrow large sums of money to build a potentially carcinogenic chimney are well-advanced.

Which of York's residents will be lucky enough to have it in their backyard?

I was further surprised to learn that the council believes it has undertaken some sort of public consultation about the incinerator.

Have any readers of the Evening Press actually seen these consultation papers? People in York must be getting used to these sham consultations such as Coppergate II or the Barbican, but I wonder whether consultation papers about the incinerator were really circulated to the citizens of York, or were they quietly buried in a big hole and set alight?

Dave Taylor,

New Walk Terrace, York.

Updated: 11:17 Monday, January 23, 2006