VILLAGES are bracing themselves for a Green war after an incinerator plan was turned down for the north of Worcestershire.

Vale residents fear this will bring the county's waste to an already over-stretched landfill site on their doorsteps and lead to an ecological disaster.

Now local MP Peter Luff is representing residents' views near a landfill site which already has some 500 lorry movements a day.

Severn Waste Services failure to win planning permission after appeal, for an incinerator at Kidderminster, could have serious implications for the Throckmorton, Hill and Moor and Wyre Piddle areas.

Peter Luff, MP for Mid Worcestershire, fears that the Hill and Moor landfill site will have to take even more refuse, with an increase in hours of operation and lorry movements.

The MP is writing to Rob Sykes, chief executive of Worcestershire County Council, urging him to work with Severn Waste Services to find a site in the north of the county that can deal with the waste generated there.

Mr Luff explained: "I am not advocating incineration of waste, or criticising those who campaigned against the Kidderminster scheme but I am saying that my constituents already have a busy landfill site with some 500 lorry movements a day, a foot and mouth burial site with 130,000 carcases and a possible asylum centre for 750 people to contend with."

He stressed: "They cannot be expected to see even more disturbance to their lives if all of North Worcestershire's waste is carted to their area for disposal."

Everyone wanted to see less landfill and more recycling, Mr Luff said, but even if the county's recycling targets were met, it looked inevitable that the Hill and Moor site would have to take more waste, unless facilities were found in North Worcestershire urgently.

"I look to the county council and Severn Waste to solve this problem quickly. The county strategy always envisaged a waste site in the north and now it must be delivered," he said.

Philip Sherratt, area director for Severn Waste, said if the decision stood it would have a major adverse effect on the future of waste.