CHESHIRE West and Chester (CWAC) has vowed not to give up the fight against the Government after losing a High Court battle over rubbish, last week.

CWAC and and Cheshire East councils want the Government to pay £100m towards the joint Cheshire waste disposal plans for a mechanical and biological treatment plant in Lostock.

The total cost is £850m but the Government pulled the plug in October, saying the Cheshire scheme would not be needed as part of national waste planning.

The funding was withdrawn as part of the Government's spending review in October 2010, leaving the councils and preferred bidder Viridor in limbo.

Both councils challenged the decision for the Griffiths Road plant, asking for a judicial review, but Mr Justice Langstaff, sitting in the High Court in Leeds, dismissed their case.

He ruled the Government was entitled to consider the national position regarding waste disposal and to take into account estimates on how much public financial support would be needed to meet landfill targets imposed through European legislation.

Both councils have applied for permission to appeal and Mike Jones, leader of CWAC, said: "We feel we were completely justified in asking for a judicial review and extremely disappointed that the hearing did not go in our favour.

"In total, around £4.5m of taxpayers' money was spent on a detailed and lengthy procurement process designed to identify a provisional preferred bidder.

"This process – designed to find a vital long-term solution to the disposal of Cheshire's household waste – had just been completed when the funding was withdrawn."

Wesley Fitzgerald, leader of Cheshire East Council, added: "This excellent scheme, drawn up between the two councils, would have solved Cheshire's household waste disposal problem in an environmentally-friendly way and would have avoided the need for landfill."

Both authorities felt the methods the Government used flawed methods to assess thef Cheshire’s 25-year scheme to dispose of around 180,000 tonnes of waste a year.

And they also maintained that assessment had under-estimated benefits which would have come from the scheme.