A £300million bid for government funding to pay for a waste-burning incinerator has been submitted by Lancashire County Council.

Despite claiming the establishment of an incinerator was not a forgone conclusion, county councillors agreed to submit a request for £300million of government money to fund a Private Finance Initiative which would result in all Lancashire's waste management being handed over to a commercial company.

The £300million would include the cost of a waste incinerator, described by the county council as the only practical alternative to putting rubbish in the ground. Lancashire County Council's waste management strategy -- developed in partnership with borough councils -- should enable more than one million tonnes of waste per year by 2020 and reduce waste growth throughout Lancashire. It aims to recycle 58 per cent of household waste by 2020.

Any excess waste will have to be dealt with in other ways to landfill, because the European Union is levying massive charges for dumping rubbish in the ground within the next 10 years.

Opposition campaign groups claim such incinerators cause cancer.

Lancashire County Council's current waste disposal contracts -- including the running of tips and the provisions of dustbin collections -- ends in 2003. It is hoped the current system will be replaced by one, all-encompassing firm which will promote recycling and dispose of waste which can no longer be placed in landfills.