GOVERNMENT backing for the Ardley Incinerator plan was the “most awful Christmas present” for Bicester, says a councillor.

Catherine Fulljames, who represents Ploughley on Oxfordshire County Council, spoke out after the plans won support from Local Government and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

She said: “This is the most awful Christmas present this area could have.

“They are determined to use this rural area as an industrial site.

“I’m just so desperately sorry for the people who have worked so hard to fight against it.

“The people in this vicinity won’t get anything at all out of this at all except aggravation and an eyesore in their neighbourhood.”

Mr Pickles says he is “minded” to approve Viridor’s plan, which had been thrown out by the county council, subject to the firm supplying him with further information.

A subsequent application by Viridor for the site was approved by the council. Mr Pickles will also not intervene in this decision.

Jonathan O’Neill, chairman of Ardley Against the Incinerator campaign group, said the move made a mockery of the Government’s pledge for more local decision making.

He said: “This is an example of localism which is clearly not going to help local people.”

Cherwell District Council opposed the move but Michael Gibbard, executive member for planning and housing, said: “The decision appears clear-cut, so it is difficult to see what the council can now do to oppose an incinerator development at Ardley.”

Viridor’s Ian John said the decision showed the “urgent requirement” for a facility to treat waste.