THIS week has seen another crest in the storm waves that have gathered over plans for a giant incinerator in Kidderminster.

For Chris Connor, three years in the Stop Kidderminster Incinerator campaign hotseat, the Wyre Forest District Council meeting on Monday was a measure of SKI's success in getting its message across.

Success will also depend on how many have registered written protests with Worcestershire County Council in time for tomorrow's deadline and ultimately, of course, on whether the scheme survives.

Chris believes passionately that incineration is dangerous to health and is out of step with policies overseas on recycling and other methods of dealing with waste.

He first got involved three years ago when living in Lisle Avenue, right next to the "blighted" site. He is not ashamed of admitting he is a NIMBY because "all the best campaigns are started by NIMBYs".

Coincidentally his house was then already up for sale and he has since moved to Stourport. But as he sees it, the pollution fallout would still be on his doorstep.

His time in SKI put him on "a big learning curve" as he uncovered mounting information about health risks linked to waste burners.

"If I were at the start again, I would not call our campaign Stop Kidderminster Incinerator. I would call it Stop Incineration." The other revelation was what he perceives as the "failure of democracy" in Worcestershire County Council that has kept the 25-year plan out of the waste paper basket.

But the hard work of the campaign has had its rewards in friendship with people he would not have met and in experiencing the "wonderful" community spirit that comes out in people under threat.

As an employee of Wyre Forest District Council, the support he has received from councillors has been an added bonus.

He joined in 1974 as a lorry driver and garden labourer because of his interest in horticulture and outdoor activities.

He is now parks development officer and health and safety co-ordinator for which he has just received a diploma after "the hardest examination in my life."

Has two big "0s" to celebrate this year, 20 years marriage to Patricia with whom he has a 14-year-old son and 50 years since he was born in Birmingham. The passage of time has no sting for Chris who looks forward one day to spending more time on his craft hobbies and woodland interests.

He is a long-standing student at Kidderminster College pottery classes and is also a green woodwork enthusiast skilled in fashioning traditional fencing, hurdles and basket chairs. He is proud of the expertise he has gained in ancient swale basketry skills once famous in Bewdley but which he learned in Cumbria from the only man still alive able to pass on the art.

The SKI campaign has kept him away from this and he can't wait to get back to it and the manual coppicing he must do in the forests to gather materials. "It's where my sanity is," he says.