BANBURY’S MP has joined a campaign urging a council to reject a waste firm’s second application for an incinerator.

Tony Baldry has written to Oxfordshire County Council’s chief executive Joanna Simons urging the authority to refuse Viridor’s application.

The firm recently submitted a second application for a £100m incinerator at Ardley Fields, despite the first application due to be heard at a public inquiry in July.

Mr Baldry’s move comes weeks after Ardley With Fewcott Parish council penned a similar letter to the council chief.

They claimed Viridor’s latest application was almost the same at the original, and it should not be looked at until after the public inquiry.

The company’s first application was unanimously rejected last year by Oxfordshire County Council’s planning committee, and Viridor opted to go to appeal.

Mr Baldry’s letter said the second application made minor changes by extending the life of the incinerator to 35 years and varied how the firm would use any residual heat.

He said: “It is very difficult to see how either of these grounds are a material difference from the original planning application.

“Parliament introduced legislation to prevent developers making multiple planning applications, simply in an attempt to wear down local authorities, planning officers and councillors.

“Under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, Oxfordshire County Council have the right to refuse this second planning application if it is deemed to be ‘similar to another’.

“It is clear that this second application is substantially the same as the first application, and can I urge the county council to decline to accept the application.”

Ian Corkin, of Ardley with Fewcott Parish Council, welcomed the move.

He said: “We are pleased to have Tony’s support, not only as our local MP, but also as a former planning minister. It is a welcome endorsement of our assertion that OCC should reject the second application.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Owen Morton reiterated a decision over the application would be made when it came before the planning committee. Robert Ryan, Viridor project manager, said: “We are confident that the documents submitted to the planning authority stressed the strong need for the facility and addresses issues previously raised.”

In Viridor’s new application, no changes have been made to the proposed capacity and size of the facility at Ardley, but the company said it had looked at the need of the facility, and ways heat and power from the site could be utilised, and had revised the landfill aspects of the scheme.

If it is given the go-ahead, the plant will burn up to 300,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste every year and will produce enough electricity to power 60 per cent of homes across the Cherwell district.