On the night of October 19 last I slept soundly, for a change.

The reason was Oxfordshire County Council Planning Committee’s rejection of proposals to build waste-burning incinerators in the county, on sound planning grounds.

I would like to thank the councillors who so wisely voted against approval.

One of the grounds not specifically mentioned by the councillors was that of public perception of risk.

This has been legally established as a planning issue, but never mind the perception of risk.

The public have already been experiencing risk in relation to the incinerator proposals, summarised by one of the anti-incinerator campaigners, invited to speak, as considerable stress.

Stress, known to be deleterious to health, has been suffered in all age ranges from worried children to grandparents, like myself, who developed insomnia, to those fearing existing medical conditions would worsen.

More positively, the most important thing to have emerged from the campaigns against waste incineration is the discovery of considerable expertise in relation to all aspects of waste management among the public, far in excess of that which could be found in the limited staff numbers of waste management companies, or, I dare say, the county council.

If the rest of the council follow the wisdom of the planning committee members who voted against the approvals, they could, as our representatives, tap into this expertise to find alternative solutions. Great stateswomen and men admit that, ultimately, public instinct is right.

What they know and our county council leaders should learn is that public ‘instinct’ is shorthand for the multifaceted talents and intellects that reside in the people.

Council leaders don’t have to struggle to do it all by themselves.

They can engage the public to achieve the right solution for Oxfordshire’s waste.

Dr Pauline Amos-Wilson, Milton Road, Sutton Courtenay