A TOWN council in Cheshire West has written to the Secretary of State urging him to reject plans for the expansion of the Lostock Incinerator.

In a letter to Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Northwich Town Council also raised concerns over a public consultation which was held during lockdown earlier this year.

Controversy has surrounded plans to expand The Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant (LSEP), which was given planning permission by the Government in 2012 and is still under construction.

But LSEP, which is jointly owned by Danish company Copenhagen Investment Partners (CIP) and Spanish firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), has since applied for permission to increase the amount of waste burned from 600,000 to 728,000 tonnes. They also want to extend the opening hours from 7am-7pm as was originally planned, to 7am-11pm.

If the government gives the green light, there would be a daily increase in HGV movements from 262 to 434.

In the letter, the town council said: “The formidable financial and commercial resources of this company have delivered an eight-kilo document set produced over many months by a large group of internal and external expert consultants.

“In compiling our objection, we have had but 30 days and to rely on the diligence of a small number of volunteer local councillors, hardly a fair battle we are sure you will agree.

“As a result, the people who will suffer the most get the least chance to put forward their opinions. “

The town council also expressed concerns over a public consultation that was held over four weeks in February when the country was in lockdown.

The letter added: “There could be no public information displays, no public question and answer meetings, no face-to-face meetings with residents, parish or local authority councillors.

“There was little public awareness of the consultation and consequently only 281 responses were received from a town of 20,000 people.

“Surely a most inappropriate time to conduct a consultation when the minds of most people were focussed on their own and family safety and wellbeing.”

A spokesperson for LSEP Ltd, said: “After consulting with the local community on our plans earlier this year – which included issuing a newsletter to the local community with a freepost questionnaire, a live online Q&A webinar, consultation website, and freephone and email community contact points – we submitted a Section 36 variation application to amend the LSEP consent to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

“As part of the variation application all potential environmental impacts, including transport and air quality, were fully assessed.

"This showed that the variation to the LSEP scheme would not result in any unsustainable environmental or transport infrastructure impacts, and would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 270,000 tonnes when compared with the alternatives of sending the same quantity of waste to landfill.”