Mayor says no to incinerator in Doncaster

DONCASTER will not provide a home for a controversial new incinerator which will burn much of South Yorkshire's rubbish.

As plans emerge for the shared venture between Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham councils, the Mayor of Doncaster has moved to assure people it will not be in his borough.

The incinerator could be built on one of three sites in Barnsley according to a new report - but council chiefs are refusing to say where they are.

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Senior Barnsley councillors have approved a 58,000 contribution to pay for environmental surveys on the three sites as part of an investigation into suitable plots but they are remaining tight-lipped about the locations.

Mayor Martin Winter said: “Our aim in Doncaster is to recycle, reuse or reduce our waste by 100 per cent and create jobs within our communities through this process. This is why we have set ourselves a zero waste target and strategy.

“Obviously, zero waste is an aspiration and we are working with Barnsley and Rotherham to look at a number of different ways which will allow us to achieve as close to this aspirational target as possible and then for us to deal with the remaining waste in an environmentally friendly way.

“I would like to be very clear that I do not support and will not support the development of an incinerator in Doncaster and I have made this explicit throughout our discussions.”

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Ruth Middleton, assistant director of planning and transportation at Barnsley, said the suggested sites would be revealed early next year after a public consultation.

Officials have yet to decide what types of facility will be chosen to handle the estimated 250,000 tonnes of waste the region produces each year.

An overall plan is set to be submitted for approval by the Planning Inspectorate in October next year. Construction could then be likely to start in 2012.