CONCERNS have been raised over the short distance between the sites where a waste incinerator and an eco-town are planned to be built.

Villagers say that as the crow flies, the incinerator at Ardley would be just under a mile from the housing development proposed for the edge of Bicester.

Earlier this year, the Government backed a proposal to build a 5,000-home eco-town on farmland between Bicester, Bucknell, Caversfield and Chesterton.

But Bucknell Parish Council says the combination of the two development is an “environmental contradiction” and makes a nonsense of Government policy over eco-towns.

District councillor Andrew Fulljames, who represents Chesterton, also said the two proposals did not “sit comfortably together”.

Last night, a spokesman for the developer P3Eco was unavailable for comment, but Tim Fenn, whose firm Eco2 Build forms part of the consortium, admitted: “It’s going to have an impact. It’s not an ideal scenario.”

He would not be drawn over whether the developers would join the fight against the incinerator but said energy from waste initiatives would be included at the eco-town site.

This could include an anaerobic digestion system, to dispose of some household waste and a biomass plant to generate electricity for the site and possibly some of Bicester as well.

Mr Fulljames said: “It’s not joined-up local government.

“I think they will have real problems selling the eco houses to people with eco-aspirations, when they are 1,400 metres away from an incinerator.”

Bucknell parish councillor Hazel Watt said: “What’s the sense in putting an incinerator 1,400 metres from an eco-town?

“It’s an environmental contradiction.

“It makes a nonsense of Government thinking.

“The villagers do not welcome the eco-development, but at the moment most attention is focused on the incinerator, because that’s imminent, that’s actually happening and we have got to fight it.”

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell District Council’s executive member for planning, said planning permission for the incinerator had not yet been granted and he hoped that councillors would look at the location of the eco-town when considering the application.

Tonight, a second public meeting is taking place at Bicester Methodist Church Hall, in Sheep Street, at 7.15pm, to rally support for the campaign against the eco-town plan.

Organiser Tony Ives, a former town planner at the Vale of the White Horse District Council, said residents were under the impression the eco-town had been approved for building, but in fact the land still had to be allocated for development and then go through the planning process.

He said: “This is not a case of nimbyism.

“This eco-town is following a different path from any other development known to planning.

“A Government minister and the district council have pressed forward without consultation.”

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk