WE FEEL it is vitally important that you, and every other council taxpayer in Oxfordshire, can today learn the huge cost of the incinerator Oxfordshire County Council wants to build at Ardley.

The Oxford Mail obtained a report outlining the forecast figures, which shows the bill is likely to run to around two-thirds of a billion pounds.

Oxfordshire County Council did not want us to publish these figures because the deal is not settled and some elements are commercially sensitive.

On some points that is true, and we have not published anything that would jeopardise the deal.

However if council taxpayers are about to be committed to such a huge bill for the next quarter of a century then it is imperative they know at the earliest opportunity.

It also becomes more significant that taxpayers know the bill has just gone up by more than £10m as a result of the county’s planning committee refusal of planning permission and the ensuing delay.

Whatever the arguments over whether incineration is the way forward, or if Ardley is the right place, you deserve to know and debate, if you wish, the hit on your pocket.