A COUNCIL leader dubbed Tuesday "a black day for Wyre Forest" after news a planning application has finally been drawn up for a £40 million waste burner in Kidderminster.

Wyre Forest District Council chairman John Gordon expressed dismay at the timing of the application tabled with Worcestershire County Council when the problem of climate change is under the spotlight.

"The polluting emissions it will produce and the heavy traffic it will generate will do nothing for global warning and I am totally opposed to it", he said.

Mr Gordon, who is also Stourport-Mitton ward councillor for Worcestershire County Council, said he refused to be gagged by county advice that county councillors should not speak out in case it prejudiced the planning decision due on February 26. He would continue to state the view of the district council that was opposed to the idea.

News of the application also sparked renewed calls for a voice from longstanding objectors who responded to the news with the slogan "the incinerator is not just for Christmas, it is for 25 years".

Activists planning an intensified campaign to rally written objections to the scheme felt they had been short-changed by a January 12 deadline set for the county council to receive comments.

The consultation period has already been lengthened from the normal 28 days for a planning application to nearly two months, but protesters argue it unfairly covers the Christmas period when people will have less time to write and object.

She said protesters would also insist roadshows, announced by contractors Severn Waste Services, should include space for protesters to explain opposing views.

Criticising an SWS description of the incinerator scheme as "small-scale" she said: "The people of Wyre Forest should know this is a huge plant and one that will affect their lives for years to come if they allow it to go ahead."

SWS area director Alan Foster said the energy-from-waste plant and two recycling facilities was the last link in a scheme to recycle and recover energy from over 50 per cent of household waste by 2004.

Information leaflets would be sent to residents and an environmental statement would comment on the impact of the scheme on air quality, traffic and ecology.

The county council confirmed it would ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions to make the decision although the council is obliged to consider the application at a special planning meeting. It will follow recommendations by consultants Entec appointed by the county council to give an independent view.

Roadshows are in Stourport Civic Centre on December 4 and 8, at Kidderminster Town Hall on December 5 and at Bewdley's St George's Hall on December 9.