Harrogate and Knaresborough MP: “Incinerator go ahead the wrong choice.”

North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) are set to press ahead with plans to build an incinerator as part of a waste recovery park at Allerton on the outskirts of the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency.

The plans have met with stiff opposition from local residents, parish councils, local councillors and the area’s Member of Parliament, Andrew Jones.

The decision to press on with this unpopular proposal is set to be made by NYCC’s Cabinet next week with a final decision made by the full council on 24 September 2014.

Andrew Jones MP commented: If the Cabinet and the Council give the go ahead this will represent a poor decision. Councillors will be locking our area in to an expensive and unnecessary project.

Recycling is increasing; waste going to landfill is decreasing – we are going in the right direction. Burning our waste is the wrong call.

Instead, we should be viewing waste as a resource and investing in re-using and recycling it.

It is expected, if approved, that the incinerator and waste recovery park will start operation in 2016/17.

Mr Jones continued: Incineration is already an old technology. There are other ways of dealing with waste. I hope, even at this late stage, that sense prevails.