OPPOSITION group It’s Our County (IOC) says an “out-of-county, out-of-date, inefficient and dirty” incinerator is not worth plunging Herefordshire Council a further £40m into debt.

IOC has today pledged to continue its fight against the incinerator plan and its need for a £40m loan from the council to get the plant built.

The council’s cabinet unanimously backed the plan yesterday (Thurs) and authorised the securing of the £40m from the Public Works Loans Board.

IOC deputy leader called cabinet support for the plan and subsequent justification of adding another £40m to the council’s debt burden “deeply questionable.”

“All this, to enable Herefordshire to become the minority shareholder in an out-of-county and out-of-date, inefficient and dirty municipal waste incinerator which will continue to see us shipping all of the county’s household and business waste into Worcestershire for the next 30 years,” she said.

IOC sees an alternative in low cost, high efficiency, high recycling, treatment, gasification and heat pumping technologies now reaching commissioning and operation. The group has repeatedly made the case such technologies during waste strategy debates.

“If we chose to go our own way, these technologies would be coping more cheaply with all our waste, and supplying cheap heat and energy to local businesses, within 3 years. But this out of date administration don’t seem to be able to join us in the 21st century,” said IOC leader Councillor Anthony Powers.

Earlier this week the plan was passed by the council’s overview and scrutiny committee amid claims that the decision stood not stand as the make-up of the committee no longer reflected the 29-29 balance of the council.

Committee chairman councillor Alan Seldon called the council’s handling of the issue “cagey” saying that, under questioning, the council was unable to confirm that its own auditors thought the proposed Hartlebury incinerator was good value for money.