ANGRY campaigners today slammed the county council as plans to build a controversial waste plant in Huncoat were officially given the go-ahead.

The scheme will now see a waste technology park built on the site of the village's former power station, including a composting facility, a biological treatment facility, and buildings to sort and store waste.

A new link road will also be built, cutting across green belt land, in a move which has angered locals, already unhappy about the plant which will be the second large waste facility in the area, along with nearby Whinney Hill Tip.

Residents told the county council they had been unfairly treated, but its development control committee disagreed, and made the decision yesterday.

Roy Cheetham, chairman of the Huncoat Community Forum, said: "The existence of Whinney Hill landfill is no excuse for damaging more of our area.

"Our historic garden will become the rubbish centre of the region.

"It will deepen Huncoat's grievance and foster deep resentment of Lancashire County Council for decades to come. This isn't the right place for the development, it isn't a suitable location."

And Siobhan Lewis, local resident and member of campaign body Huncoat Voice, told the meeting the village had no way to defend itself against the plans.

She said: "The might and vast resources of Lancashire County Council are being brought to bear upon a village with no financial means to defend itself.

"At best this is shoddy politics, at worst licensed bullying."

But county councillors disagreed and voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plans, which are set to start within five years, with work on the access road being carried out before the rest of the development.

It was decided that the plans were necessary, and Huncoat was the best location for the development.

County Coun Stephen Sutcliffe, Clitheroe representative on the authority, said: "What we have here is a large brownfield site. It is probably, as I understand it, the only brownfield site in the right area capable of accepting the proposed plans.

"I appreciate there are access difficulties and I think the proposals are the best we are going to get."