A BID to build a £50 million domestic waste incinerator at Ridham near Sittingbourne is flawed because it is not needed, it has been claimed. David Platt, counsel for Kent County Council which turned down the application by the waste disposal company SITA, said the firm's appeal should fail. There was no need for a major incinerator in this part of Kent.

The French-owned company wants to build the waste-from-energy incinerator at Ridham Dock. It says the plant would process 260,000 tonnes of waste annually and generate 20 megawatts - enough power for 20,000 homes. Many protestors thought SITA's plans had been sunk when KCC rejected its application, but the appeal led more than 50 of them to attend the inquiry's first day. Mr Platt told the inquiry at Kemsley there was no source of municipal waste on so large a scale and it was not the best practicable environmental option.

SITA's application was flawed because it had become a plan for a regional incinerator to pull in waste from around South East England.

It was untrue to claim that 30 per cent of waste would be recycled as that figure included "bottom ash" in the incinerator.

The true figure was only 13.4 per cent - less than KCC currently recycled.

The inquiry will sit until November 9 and then adjourn until November 29 for closing submissions.