West Norfolk councillors oppose King's Lynn incinerator

West Norfolk councillors have voted unanimously to oppose the building of a waste incinerator in King's Lynn.

Members of the authority's development control board met on Monday to discuss Norfolk County Council's plans for the plant at Saddlebow.

Borough councillors have listed 13 objections to the £600m scheme.

Meanwhile the county council has extended the consultation period on the planning application for the plant by two weeks until 17 August.

Plans for the "energy from waste" plant have been submitted by Anglo-US conglomerate Cory Wheelabrator.

While they are backed by the Conservative-run county council, the Tory-controlled borough council has vigorously opposed them, citing environmental, health and economic concerns.

'Call plans in'

A borough council-organised poll found more than 92% of those who responded were against the plans.

The borough council is pressing for a judicial review and for the plans to be "called in" by Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to become the subject of a public inquiry.

The borough council wants the final decision to be taken out of the county's hands because of concerns that it is both the proposer of the project and the planning authority for it.

The county council announced it was extending the consultation period at a meeting of the full council on Monday morning.

Graham Plant, cabinet member for planning and transportation, said: "The consultation on the planning application is well under way and many people have been visiting the application web pages and responding.

"We understand that the complexity of all the information means it can take time to consider properly and that is very much what we want to happen.

"We have already doubled the statutory period of consultation from three weeks to six weeks but we have been hearing from colleagues in King's Lynn and from several parish councils that a longer period is needed."

Amendment: This story has been changed to make clear that it is a £600m scheme, not £169m as previously reported.