COUNTY council leader Keith Mitchell’s remarks on incineration (Mail, October 22) only confirm the intellectual and democratic vacuum at the head of Oxfordshire County Council decision making.

Despite overwhelming opposition to mass burn incineration at all stages of the four-year saga to address the landfill waste disposal problem, Mitchell continues to go on; ignoring public consultation, ignoring tens of thousands of petitioners against his proposals, and now ignoring his own planning committee’s vote against the incineration proposals.

As enlightened countries such as France and the US move into new technology for waste disposal, Mitchell continues to bury his head in the ashes and adhere to this outdated, inefficient, and potentially dangerous technology, while raising the risk for all Oxfordshire’s taxpayers who will bear the financial cost of his ineffective management.

Oxfordshire urgently needs to assess why cities such as London, Barcelona, Madrid, Sydney, Cadiz, Varennes, Montpelier, Hannover, and many many others are moving to build safe, efficient, and cost-effective waste disposal plant, while Oxfordshire – one of Britain’s technology cradles – is being dragged back to the 19th century for its choice.

DJ MCKENZIE, Sutton Courtenay