MORE than 100 residents packed a community hall on Saturday, as members of a campaign group outlined the latest developments in the battle to stop a massive incinerator from being built in Hatfield.

Members and supporters of Hatfield Against Incineration (HAI) converged on the Hilltop Hall, in Bishops Rise, South Hatfield, to show their solidarity against the county council’s plans to build a �225m waste burner at New Barnfield in Travellers Lane.

HAI committee member Cathy Roe said: “The hall was absolutely full and we actually ran out of chairs,” she said.

Supporters of the long-running campaign – including the Welwyn Hatfield Times – have cited a number of reasons why New Barnfield is an unsuitable site for an incinerator, including the close proximity of Southfield special needs school and the town’s central resources library.

And although the council has long described New Barnfield as its ‘reference’ site, MP Grant Shapps told Saturday’s meeting there were grounds for optimism in HAI’s campaign.

Amendments to planning law, he said, will mean changes that deliver no benefits to a community will not be forced on them.

Cathy added: “There are certainly no benefits in a plan that deprives a community of a library and causes problems for a school.”

Other speakers at the meeting included David Ashton, from campaign group Herts WithOutWaste, ex-Welwyn Hatfield mayor Kim Langley and former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Paul Zukowskyj.

As the meeting closed, residents were urged to write to the county council as it prepares to name the two firms that will battle it out to secure its incineration contract.