Sarah Di Caprio protests at Surrey CC's waste plan

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 11th May 2008

How the Surrey Incinerator might look

THE county council has agreed a 15-year waste plan that will see the authority use incineration instead of landfill to get rid of Surrey's rubbish.

Opposition Liberal Democrats, led by Sarah Di Caprio, protested against the plan, arguing that other ways of disposing waste had been ignored by the ruling Conservatives.

The Surrey Waste Plan is the first of its kind in the country and has taken bureaucrats at County Hall five years to draft.Its essence is to have residents and businesses reducing, recycling and reusing as much rubbish as possible, and then incinerating whatever is left.

Independent inspectors used by central government rated the plan as sound, but added there needed to be an early review.They added that many residents and interest groups in the county had not been properly consulted, while a statement said that incineration as the preferred method should be removed.

The Clockhouse Brickworks site in Capel, near Dorking, has been earmarked as one site for a so-called Energy from Waste facility.

Trumps Farm in Longcross, near Chertsey, which will be able to take about 160,000 tonnes of waste, could also be used for an incinerator.

Sarah Di Caprio, the Lib Dem spokesman on waste, said she hoped the council reviewed the plan soon.

She added it had not looked properly at other waste disposal methods, such as anaerobic digestion.

"There are a lot of concerns still out there," Sarah said.

"We have maintained all along that there was too much emphasis given to a specific technology, underlining to any potential developer coming forward with a proposal that incineration was the most acceptable method.

"Technology is moving forward and the council needs to be flexible in its approach to get the right waste treatment for Surrey. This is for the next 15 years."