A CONTROVERSIAL £900 million waste incinerator in North Yorkshire has moved a step closer to being given the go-ahead.

City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council’s executives have recommended awarding a contract for building the huge plant between York and Harrogate to Spanish firm Amey Cespa.

Full meetings of both authorities later this month will see a final decision made on the deal, which would see a facility being created at Allerton Quarry near the A1(M) with the aim of cutting the councils’ waste management bills by about £320 million. The plans have met with fierce opposition over claims possible alternatives to the plant, which would provide enough electricity to power about 40,000 homes, have not been looked at, as well as the potential £1.4 billion combined cost to the two authorities.

The scheme is being backed by £65 million in private finance initiative (PFI) funding and the councils say it would allow them to beat their targets of recycling 50 per cent of waste by 2020, as well as reducing their landfill tax payments.

City of York Council’s executive yesterday heard conservation campaigner Philip Crowe raise doubts about the project, saying: “There is large opposition to this, with concern about the consultation procedures and obscurity with which it is being conducted.”

Richard Lane of the York Residents Against Incineration campaign group told the meeting: “The council has achieved some great things with recycling, so why this? We’re in the middle of a waste revolution and this plan is very much bringing up the rear. It’s a gamble and not even a sure-fire route to big savings.”

But council leader Andrew Waller said: “It has taken the best part of a decade to get to this point and, if we do not grasp this nettle, we will have lost the opportunity for the best part of another decade to come up with another solution.”