A BID to build a £600million waste incinerator in Suffolk has entered a new phase after county chiefs officially put the contract out for tender.Suffolk County Council has published an advert for a long-term contract for the design, construction and operation of a facility to deal with household waste in the county that can't be recycled or composted.

A BID to build a £600million waste incinerator in Suffolk has entered a new phase after county chiefs officially put the contract out for tender.

Suffolk County Council has published an advert for a long-term contract for the design, construction and operation of a facility to deal with household waste in the county that can't be recycled or composted.

The county currently favours a waste incinerator at a site in Great Blakenham although it has said it is open to suggestions of different technologies and different locations.

Eddy Alcock, responsible for environment and waste management at Suffolk County Council, said: "We are confident that we will receive a wide range of applications for a number of technologies.

“The contract will be out to tender for later this year and it is envisaged that a final decision regarding the best application will not be made until early 2010.

“However, my main message remains the same - we must continue to do our best with recycling.

“This tender is for a plant able to take only 250,000 tonnes of our left-over waste.

“We have to go further with reducing, reusing and recycling otherwise the facility will be too small."

The decision to back an incinerator as the favoured option has caused concerns among nearby residents and a group has been formed in bid to stop such a structure being built.

The Suffolk Against Incineration and Landfill (SAIL) group, aims to put pressure on the county council to opt for a more acceptable alternative.

Peter Welham, head of SAIL, said: “We still think they should be completely reviewing the policy on incineration.

“It could be one of the tenders comes up with a solution other than incineration and that would be something on our wishlist.”

Are you in favour of an incinerator in Great Blakenham? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk