Sir – The delay to the proposed planning applications for incinerators in Sutton Courtenay and Ardley is to be welcomed (Report, October 22).

The county council has yet to sign a contract for Oxfordshire’s municipal waste to be incinerated, and until planning permission is granted then it would be irresponsible to proceed.

This provides an opportunity for the county to reassess its preference for incineration and choose better alternatives.

The good news is that Oxfordshire is showing good progress in reducing waste sent to landfill without an incinerator.

The introduction of a more comprehensive household collection for recycling in South Oxfordshire this summer, has produced a 70 per cent recycling rate. Notably, it includes the collection of food waste. Similar arrangements will be introduced throughout Oxfordshire in the next year.

With so much of Oxfordshire’s waste being recycled, then one wonders why a £650m incinerator project is needed.

One only has to look to Cambridgeshire to see how a scheme supported by the public is succeeding. Cambridgeshire is expected to open its Mechanical Biological Treatment facility for non-recycled waste this month.

It was built in little over 18 months, and it doesn’t involve burning waste. Its output will be biologically stable — thus avoiding Government fines, while also reducing the amount landfilled.

When Oxfordshire County Council started its procurement for a way of treating our non-recycled municipal waste, bids were invited for about 200,000 tonnes of it.

The county is now proposing a commercial venture with Viridor to burn about 300,000 tonnes of waste. About half or more, of that waste will not be municipal waste but commercial waste. The county council has no legal or financial obligation to deal with this commercial waste.

Andrew Wood, Oxford Friends of the Earth