A PACKED and charged meeting at Kidderminster Town Hall heard residents, campaigners and councillors lined up to condemn the bid by Severn Waste Services to build an incinerator in the town.

Speaker after speaker was warmly applauded, despite a warning from the planning inspector, as the company came under fire on health, environmental, visual amenity and human rights grounds.

Sam Evans, 67, of Stourport Road, a father of five and grandfather of 10, said: "Where we live we are right in the firing line.

"I am very angry at Severn Waste and its associates for appealing against refusal of planning permission. The people of Kidderminster and surrounding areas are being held to ransom. We have had to pay for the cost of this appeal. We are really having our noses rubbed in it."

Martin Meredith told the public meeting on Thursday, "I live half a mile from the site. I strongly object to this application. The county council voted to reject it by an overwhelming majority. It was a clear decision which should stand."

He expressed concern that three schools, Foley Park First, Birchen Coppice First and Birchen Coppice Middle, were in the fallout zone for emissions from the stack and in particular, dioxins.

"If incinerators must be built at all, they should be built well away from residential areas, not in close proximity to them," he added.

Brenda Nott, a Forest Gate resident of Harlech Way and former head of Birchen Coppice First School, said the proposed development was in clear breach of human rights legislation which protected the right of residents to "peaceful enjoyment" of their homes.

She said the information provided was often technical, complicated and difficult to understand, but she had strived to understand the arguments being put. But she said people who had attended public meetings about the proposed burner had often been fobbed off with "glossy literature."

"Many questions remained unanswered. I never believed a complete detailed evaluation was carried out of all the potential sites. In my view, they chose this site because it was available."

She said when she was head of Birchen Coppice five years ago, asthma levels among children were already at an "alarming" level.

She also highlighted the lack of leisure opportunities in the area which the loss of the sports pitches at the Stourport Road site would further exacerbate and the threat of traffic chaos if the development went ahead.

"The incinerator should not be built in any town or residential area," she said.

Irene Painter, of Forest Gate, said the application was "quite unacceptable." She told the inquiry that from her home, the British Sugar stack dominated the skyline.

"The decision by British Sugar to demolish and vacate the site brought enormous relief but the incinerator proposal is quite alarming."

She added: "Living in a valley we have enough problems with air quality as it is from traffic which is only going to get worse. You can bet the company directors won't be living anywhere near this.

"People of Kidderminster have enough problems with the downgrading of their hospital without the threat of an incinerator being dumped on their doorstep. We don't want it." The inquiry continues.