RESIDENTS worried that a new waste burner would turn their Hampshire village into a congested rat-run have told planners: "Go back to the drawing board."

At a public meeting arranged to inform locals about the £40 million energy-from-waste incinerator planned for Marchwood, residents expressed fears that their village - already swamped by military and industrial traffic - would become unbearable.

The incinerator would be situated at the site of the old power station and plans will go before county planners this winter. It would be able to process around 165,000 tonnes of south-west Hampshire's waste.

But the rubbish has to get there.

And fears over safety were put on the back burner amid worries over increased traffic movements.

At the moment, lorries make a total of 1,606 journeys down Jacob's Gutter Lane per week.

Residents were told that if the incinerator were built, 2,768 lorries would use the road. But bosses insist that, with a transfer station planned for Southampton, that figure would reduce to 1,984.

Marchwood county councillor Mel Kendal, who has been consistently opposed to the burner, urged planners to consider barging waste across the river.

"It seems crazy in such an already urbanised area to add that traffic movement. The only way we can limit the damage is by having a barging facility as early as possible," he said. He added that plans for an anaerobic digester in Southampton were unlikely to materialise, adding more pressure on Marchwood.

Project director John Collis said he thought it was likely that Southampton would get the anaerobic facility, but added they would not rule out the option of transporting rubbish by river if it did not.

Marchwood vicar John Curtis expressed fears that construction of the burner would also mean disruption and burner chiefs admitted that it would lead to around 50 journeys an hour, but stressed that the 150 construction staff would be bussed to and from the site.

Parish council chairman Mike Saxby slammed county planners for failing to see that roads around Marchwood were becoming insufficient.

But Richard Read, head of minerals and waste planning for Hampshire County Council, said the parish council never wanted Jacobs Gutter Lane improved.

The deadline for public comments on the proposals is September 30.

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