A CLERICAL cock-up has forced a dramatic scaling down of a controversial bid to put a mobile rubble crusher at a site previously mooted for a giant incinerator.

The amount of waste carried by lorry to the machine as well as its operating times have now been drastically altered in the plan for the former British Sugar site on Stourport Road.

But protesters worried about dust and noise coming from the machine said the plan - submitted just 14 months after the £40 million incinerator scheme was thrown out - still needed to be boycotted by planners at Worcestershire County Council.

Original plans suggested 80 vehicles would make their way to the site every day, carrying 500 tonnes of bricks, blocks, roadstone and aggregate, between the hours of 6am and 8pm.

But bosses at the firm now said only 10 loads would be delivered to the site and 100 tonnes would be processed between 8am and 3.30pm. A maximum of 30 trucks would leave the site during the six-day working week.

The man who prepared the plans said an error in his calculations led to the wrong figures being put to the public, leading to an outcry from residents who had previously breathed a sigh of relief after a four-year battle against the incinerator scheme.

Independent consultant Martin Dale said the figures were based on the assumption the Kidderminster firm which wanted to use the machine - Lawrence's Aggregates - would have 500 tonnes of rubble a day to process.

"There just isn't that much available," said Mr Dale who added the hours of operation were altered because remaining British Sugar staff closed the site at 3.30pm everyday, cutting off the only access to the site.

He said: "When I checked with my client I discovered I had made an error and a wrong assumption."

Planning assistant at Worcestershire County Council Steven Edden said the council would now have to consider whether to put the revised plans out for a second consultation.

But campaigners fighting the idea said they still wanted to see it thrown out by the county council.

Before the mistake was realised, a petition against the plan was circulating among residents who wanted to see the crusher scheme scrapped.

Nathan Desmond, who represents Oldington and Foley Park on Wyre Forest District Council, said: "We have still got to object to it because it would mean noise and dust and because it is a deviation from the district council's Local Plan.

"It is an improvement on what we were first told but the community will still not welcome it."