ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have called off a proposed protest at the Shelford landfill site in Canterbury planned for Friday.

It follows the county council's decision to cancel a crucial planning site meeting over the application for the Brett/Brightstar SWERF waste recycling plant. The authority now says it will hold both the site meeting and a public meeting close together in the new year.

It has bowed to pressure from protestors who say they were not being given enough time to consider and prepare their objections.

Jill Pollock of the campaign group NOTOXITY which represents residents in the area, said: "We were angry at being excluded from the site meeting and were going to line the road leading to the site to make our feelings known. I think the KCC has done the right thing for once in allowing more time.

"Quite frankly, the situation had become very confusing with the earlier cancellation of the public meeting and a number of different deadline dates for submissions."

The planning committee says that when it does hold a site meeting, it will break with protocol to allow a member of the campaign group to attend.