THE company hoping to operate the controversial Allington incinerator has distanced itself from technology used at the only similar plant in the UK.

The Waste Recycling Group (WRG) will hear at the end of the summer whether the Environment Agency will grant it a licence to operate the fluidised bed incinerator at Allington Quarry on the 20/20 Industrial Estate, Maidstone.

Senior company representatives who met members of Maidstone Borough Council's incinerator working group earlier this month were eager to draw distinctions between the technology used at the only existing fluidised bed incinerator in Britain, in Dundee. Cllr Malcolm Robertson (Lib Dem) described how the Dundee plant has been dogged by problems and on one occasion pumped foul gas over the city for an hour after staff were unable to shut down the plant.

WRG's regional manager Steve Bruce-Jones and technology manager Keith Whittle said that the technology used at the Dundee plant was markedly different from that proposed for Allington and pointed to another fluidised bed incinerator in Madrid which has been performing better.