CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a giant waste burner in Kidderminster have called on objectors to take up their pens again after scoring a "magnificent" 1,588 letters of protest sent to Worcestershire County Council.

Stop Kidderminster Incinerator leaders want a big public response also to the opportunity to comment by a February 16 deadline on whether operators should be granted a licence.

Protesters believe, however, that even if an Integrated Pollution Prevention Control permit is granted to Mercia Waste Management to operate the proposed waste-to-energy plant, opposition in Wyre Forest could defeat the scheme when the plans are considered by the council on March 2.

Protest letters are backed by petitions carrying 18,500 names from people concerned about health risks from emissions and the impact on traffic if the £40m burner is built on British Sugar land at Stourport Road. They included 15,000 signatures presented to county council chairman Peter Carter on Friday by Wyre Forest prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Mark Simpson and Tory councillor for Oldington and Foley Park Vera Tomlinson.

Wyre Forest District Council has also registered formal objections on planning grounds to the scheme.

About 50 people on Monday attended a meeting called by the Environment Agency to explain the issues on which it will decided whether to grant a licence.

Comments on the pollution aspects of the incinerator licence should be sent to the Environment Agency, Foley House, 123 Stourport Road, Kidderminster, DY11 7BW.