VILLAGERS living in the shadow of a redundant New Forest incinerator are fighting plans to build a new £40 million burner on neighbouring land.

Marchwood Parish Council has lodged an objection after studying proposals for an energy-from-waste plant on part of the old Powergen site.

Totton and Eling Town Council has expressed major reservations about the project and its potential impact on traffic levels in the Waterside area.

Both councils are calling for rubbish to be delivered to the riverside site by barge if the burner is approved by Hampshire County Council.

A previous incinerator at Bury Road, Marchwood, was closed four years ago after failing to meet new air quality standards.

Now parish councillors are furious that Marchwood has once again been chosen as the disposal point for Hampshire's household rubbish.

Their decision to fight the scheme is based partly on fears that lorries supplying the incinerator will create major traffic problems in the village.

A parish council spokesman said any planning consent should be accompanied by a long list of conditions.

"A vehicle routing policy should be produced to ensure that traffic movements do not have an adverse impact on the area," said the spokesman.

"The site should stay closed until 9.30am to avoid rush-hour congestion.

"And proposed improvements to Jacobs Gutter Lane between Totton and Marchwood should be completed before the unit starts operating."

The spokesman said waste from the Southampton area should be taken across the River Test by barge and not transported to Marchwood by road.

Plans to build a new incinerator in the village were also discussed by Totton's planning committee.

Members stopped short of objecting to the burner, but said Southampton's waste should be taken to Marchwood by barge if the application was approved.

They added that lorries delivering domestic waste from other parts of the county should be made to use major roads.

The proposed incinerator will burn 165,000 tonnes of household waste a year, generating enough electricity to power 14,000 homes.

But the applicant, Hampshire Waste Services, says the scheme will cause only a slight increase in local traffic.

A spokesman said barge movements were not included in the current planning application because an anaerobic digestion plant might be built in Southampton.

"An AD facility in Southampton would treat a large amount of the waste that would otherwise be transported from the city," he said.