A SECOND application to build a £650m waste Incinerator near Bicester was approved yesterday by an Oxfordshire County Council committee, to the shock of campaigners.

Waste firm Viridor wants to build the ‘energy from waste’ facility at Ardley Fields, which is already a landfill site. It would burn 300,000 tonnes a year of household rubbish that cannot be recycled.

A similar plan was rejected 12 months ago. That did not have a set period of time in which the plant would be used, but the new scheme restricted its operation to a period of 35 years.

Residents raised fears over traffic, pollution and dangers to health but council officers and Viridor said it was safe, would generate electricity and was needed to avoid costly landfill taxes.

Jon O’Neill, chairman of the Ardley Against the Incinerator campaign group, said: “As a group of residents, local businesses and councillors, today’s decision represents a bit of a farce.

“How can identical plans to the ones that were rejected last year now be passed by the council?”

The group, which has fought the plan for two-and-half-years, gathered outside County Hall in Oxford, waving placards and chanting “no incinerator for Oxfordshire”.

The council’s planning and regulation committee app-roved the plan by 10 votes to four.

Mr O’Neill said: “I want to thank everyone for their help and to let them know that this was not what we had hoped for, but it’s certainly not the end.”

He said January’s public inquiry into the refusal of the first application, which the meeting heard would still go ahead, would make the case for a judicial review.

Representatives from 19 surrounding villages opposed the plan, including 13-year-old Jacob Cherrington.

Jacob, a member of the Ardley with Fewcott Kids Action Group, said:“Because of the amount of traffic this will create, me and my friends won’t be able to play out on our bikes anymore. What’s the point in living in the countryside if I can’t go outside?

“I don’t understand what has changed from last time.”

Catherine Fulljames, a committee member and Ploughley county councillor, called the decision disgraceful.

She was unable to vote because she lived close to the site, which would see an extra 131 lorry movements a day.

She said: “They just didn’t listen. It’s so similar to the plans that were rejected last year, so why did councillors change their minds?”

Viridor’s project manager Robert Ryan said: “We’re extremely pleased with the committee’s decision, as our proposals have been in line with national and local waste management and planning policies from the outset.”

Ian Hudspeth, the council’s cabinet member for growth and infrastructure, said: “There’s a strong and clear need for a facility to provide an alternative to landfill.

“Today’s decision is a landmark moment in the process for establishing that facility and a key milestone in our wider efforts to tackle waste across the county.”

It would slash the county’s 200,000 tonnes of landfill waste a year to “virtually zero”, he said.