PROTESTERS are gearing up for a last ditch fight to stop a £100m incinerator being built in north Oxfordshire.

Campaigners opposed to plans to site the waste burner in Ardley, near Bicester, have vowed to bombard councillors with emailed images in a bid to get the planning application thrown out.

Leaflets will be sent to every home in Ardley with Fewcott, and Bucknell urging residents to fire off letters to each of the 15 Oxfordshire County councillors set to make the decision.

And there is a call for people to turn up at the planning meeting at County Hall, in Oxford, to hammer home their views.

Viridor Waste is planning to build an incinerator to burn 300,000 tonnes of the county’s rubbish.

Last month the firm was chosen as the county council’s preferred bidder to deal with Oxfordshire’s waste.

A planning meeting is expected to take place on Monday, October 19, to decide if the incinerator can be built at Ardley.

Hazel Watt, of Bucknell Parish Council, which is leading the so-called Thought for the Day email campaign, said each of the 15 councillors sitting on the planning committee would get a daily reminder.

She said: “What we will be doing is sending these interactive emails for 10 working days prior to the meeting. There will be a different email each day.”

One will feature the iconic wartime picture of Lord Kitchener asking for people to sign up to defend their country – but with the word “country” replaced by “county”.

Another is expected to show some things that were once considered safe and acceptable, but which have now been banned.

The first email which will pop up on councillors’ computer screens will be of a tall chimney and the names of the 19 villages opposing the proposal.

Jonathan O’Neill, chairman of Ardley Against the Incinerator, said leaflets would be put through doors this weekend urging residents to support the campaign.

He said: “On October 19 – if the meeting goes ahead – there will be a coach taking people to Oxford.

“We want to get as many people as possible outside County Hall.

“We want people to send letters to the 15 councillors, and if you have got kids, get them to send a letter too.

“We need to make sure each councillor gets as many letters as possible – they are the ones who will make the decision. We want them to reflect on the decision they are going to make.

“This is technically the last chance we have without going down the expensive judicial review process.”

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk For details of the campaign, go to ardleyagainsttheincinerator.co.uk.