CONTROVERSIAL proposals to build Suffolk’s first waste incinerator at Great Blakenham have cleared another major hurdle.

Members of the county council’s cabinet will next week be asked to asked to award the contract to build the incinerator to SITA UK ltd.

The company will now seek to get planning permission to build the incinerator – officially called an energy from waste facility – and if everything goes according to plan it should be operating by the end of 2014.

Council deputy leader Jane Storey said that the plant would take all the municipal non-recyclable waste from Suffolk and would produce enough electricity to power a town the size of Lowestoft.

She said: “We have to reduce the amount of waste we put in the ground. This will cut out the landfill generated by households completely in Suffolk.

“It will also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere as well as generating power.”

SITA has produced artists impressions of the proposed new incinerator which will also include a visitors’ centre and landscaping.

Mrs Storey insisted the development of the incinerator would not reduce the council’s determination to press ahead with recycling projects across the county.

“We are already recycling more than 50% of our waste and aim to increase this to 60% by 2015,” she said.

The incinerator will be in the division of opposition environment spokesman John Field. The Liberal Democrat said: “If you have to have an incinerator then I suppose this is as good as we could hope for.

“SITA have clearly taken account of concerns but I am worried about whether there will be enough for the plant if the county achieves its recycling aim.

“We shall certainly be monitoring the construction and operation of the plant if it does go ahead in this form.”