RESIDENTS against plans for a waste treatment centre on the Huncoat power station site claim they are being kept in the dark about the proposals.

At a meeting of Huncoat Area Council, they said Lancashire County Council had told them it would put in a planning application for the site before December, but three months later there was still no sign of it.

But county councillor Jean Battle said County Hall would not be rushed into putting forward proposals.

Ian McCann, a member of Hyndburn Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, a group set up to fight the proposals, said: "We were told at the last meeting that the plans would be submitted around Christmas and we motivated people at various meetings to voice their opinion on it based on that information.

"Now a lot of people in this village are perplexed.

"There has been no statement that it has been delayed, it is all up in the air.

"It is now March and nothing has been submitted, nothing has been said and we are still in the dark."

Reid Lewis, chairman of the Hyndburn CPRE, said: "Despite the public exhibition put on by Lancashire County Council last year and various meetings, residents are still in the dark."

He urged residents at the meeting to make sure their opinions on the proposals were heard.

Coun Battle said: "An important development like this needs careful consideration. It needs to be looked at from every angle and, if we rush it, there will be consequences for the local community and for the environment.

"This plan is not due to be in place until 2010, so we do not need to hurry it through and do a bad job."

The waste treatment centre is one of a number to be built across the county by 2010 as part of a £75million overhaul of rubbish collection.

It will use new biological treatments to break down rubbish which has not been seen as biodegradeable in the past and is seen as the way to bring dumping rubbish into landfill, sites like the one at Whinney Hill, to an end.

Hyndburn CPRE held events last year, including a sponsored walk, to raise money for a fighting fund. It now has more than £2,000 which will be used to pay for experts to help make a case to challenge the application when it is submitted.

The planning application is now expected to be submitted at the end of March.