TAXPAYERS have had to fork out £89 million for a Worcestershire incinerator - despite it still not being built.

The enormous waste of money has been condemned by a House of Commons inquiry which described the arrangements as "appalling".

The county council has distanced itself from a national watchdog's report which criticised the "unacceptably slow" action by the Government to intervene in talks over a new waste burner in Worcestershire.

A commons investigation found how the original deal signed between the council and private firm West Mercia Waste in 1998 was worth £680 million, before planning permission for the Kidderminster site was refused.

Since the turn of the century the council acquired the current site at Hartlebury and at the same time decided they wanted to use a new approach to treating rubbish known as autoclaving, which uses steam to destroy bacteria.

Negotiations with Mercia about introducing autoclaving broke down, because of uncertainty over whether there was a market for the end product, and the idea of an incinerator then returned.

Because of the complexities involved, almost £90 million has been paid out so far provided directly by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and its predecessor departments in Whitehall.

A report from the National Audit Office said: "The nature of the contract meant that Herefordshire and Worcestershire (councils) started to pay the contractor once the latter began to provide services under the contract, irrespective of whether all of the planned infrastructure had been delivered.

"Therefore, for the first 15 years of the contract up to March 2014, the department and its predecessors paid each of the planned grant payments in full even though the planned energy-from-waste facility had not been built."

The report has been slammed by the House of Commons Audit Committee, with chair Margaret Hodge calling it a "lax, poorly drafted" Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Mrs Hodge said "long PFI contracts" lasting 25-30 years may now be "inappropriate" for the waste sector because technology is changing so fast.

The county council says the problems highlighted in the report has no reflection on the authority.

The funds came direct from DEFRA instead of the council.

Councillor Anthony Blagg, cabinet member for the environment, said: "Margaret Hodge is appalled by something that happed under her Government (the old Labour one).

"We have played by the rules, any mismanagement in a Government department, if that is the case has nothing to do with us."

Work is currently ongoing over a £120 million incinerator at Hartlebury, which is due to open in 2017.