Controversial plans for a third power station at Didcot -- fuelled by cooking oil from food factories and fish and chip shops -- were expected to be approved today.

This is despite objections from Didcot Town Council, and West Hagbourne, Sutton Courtenay and Appleford parish councils, because of concerns over traffic, pollution and the environment.

The 15-megawatt power station, which would be eight metres tall and 60m long, would be built on part of the site of Air Products at Harrier Park, which produces gases for industrial uses.

South Oxfordshire District Council planners are urging district councillors to grant planning permission for the mini-power plant -- subject to conditions including a routing agreement to keep lorries out of the town centre by using the A4130 Didcot-Milton Heights link road.

Planners also want the one-acre site on Southmead Industrial Park to be landscaped, and existing trees and shrubs protected.

Tecgen Ltd, which wants to build the power plant, said the £6m bio-fuel power station would be the first of its type in the country.

The plan had been put forward in response to a raft of national, regional and local policies to promote the development of renewable energies.

In a planning statement, Tecgen said the bio-fuel power station would require a supply of oxygen which would be supplied by pipeline from the Air Products building.

The new power station would supply all Air Products' electricity needs.

A report to the district council's planning committee said the power station would be fuelled "using liquid bio-fuels in the form of virgin oils (from farming) and waste animal and vegetation oils and fats which would come from the food industry".

The Oxford Mail reported yesterday that electronics expert Mike Lawton, who runs a company called Futuretec at Milton Park, near Abingdon, runs his own car on waste cooking oil.

Tell us what you think.