AN MP, local councillor and cabinet member for climate emergency are calling on the community to back their campaign to stop expansion plans at a Northwich waste incinerator.

The Lostock energy-from-waste plant is under construction after being granted planning permission by the Government in 2012.

But even before completion, the operator is about to apply to ramp up the amount of waste burnt, increasing fears around pollution from the plant and what would be 434 daily lorry movements.

Northwich MP Mike Amesbury, ward councillor Sam Naylor and Cheshire West and Chester cabinet member Matt Bryan are asking the public to bombard new Secretary of State Michael Gove with objections when the variation application lands.

Cllr Naylor said: "We’re all against this power plant but unfortunately we’re not going to stop it as it’s already being built.

"What we’re trying to do is stop the variation in terms of blocking this expansion from 600,000 tonnes of waste a year to 728,000 tonnes a year, which will increase the number of HGVs bringing this waste in phenomenally.

"You could have 1,200 lorries trundling up and down Griffiths Road every day with this project and three other waste processing plants either built or in the pipeline."

Northwich Guardian: The Lostock incinerator construction works are ongoing

The Lostock incinerator construction works are ongoing

Cllr Naylor, who says the community is ‘rightly concerned’, is trying to persuade the operator to make use instead of the nearby rail head that provides connectivity with the rest of the country.

His colleague Cllr Matt Bryan (Lab, Upton), cabinet member for housing, planning and climate emergency, said: “This technology is completely incompatible with our borough’s ambitions to tackle the climate emergency.

"It was in date when the scheme was passed in 2012 but it certainly isn’t today.

"We’ve got technologies in Ellesmere Port and other parts of the borough that can deal with waste that previously had to be incinerated and that isn’t the case anymore."

Mike Amesbury said: "As Matt said, the incinerator was passed in 2012 by the then Tory-led Government and isn’t it crazy as we march towards the Cop 26 environmental summit and that net zero target in 2050 that, actually, this will spew air pollution all over our community.

"Very importantly, the variation would allow significant road journeys by HGVs delivering waste from all over the region.

"That variation has got to be stopped so this is a call to action.

"The decision is within the gift of the Secretary of State, our local authority has no say whatsoever, so we would ask people to please send their objections to Secretary of State Michael Gove when the application is lodged and let’s hope he sees sense by protecting our local residents."