ANTI-INCINERATOR activists are staging a public meeting to call for alternatives to a potential site at Hatfield’s New Barnfield.

The group, called Hatfield Against Incineration, will be staging the event on November 24 at 7.30 pm in the Jim MacDonald Centre, High View (Hilltop), South Hatfield.

The focus of the meeting will be the Herts County Council Public Consultation on Waste Strategy.

The group says it objects to plans by the county council to build an incinerator to burn all domestic black bag waste from the county.

Two companies are bidding for the contract – Veolia, which wants to build at New Barnfield and EOn, which wants to build at Harper Lane near Radlett.

Echoing the Welwyn Hatfield Times’s InferNO! campaign, Hatfield Against Incineration is calling on the public to “respond to the consultation with a resounding ‘no’ to incineration and to the use of the New Barnfield site for waste”.

They also say there are better alternatives to incineration, including reuse and recycling. A spokesman said: “Incineration is extremely expensive, and would tie Hertfordshire into a 25 year contract, even when there is not enough residual waste to burn.

“Incinerators produce emissions harmful to health, create CO2, and waste resources.

“An incinerator needs a large centralised site, with massive impact on one community.

“This could be the community of Hatfield and Welham Green, and an area of 20 miles around the incinerator.”

Earlier this month MP Grant Shapps criticised Veolia for not meeting with him to discuss its proposals for Hatfield.