KEN LIVINGSTONE is backing the fight for a judicial review of the Government’s decision to allow a controversial incinerator to be built.

The support from the Mayor of London to the legal challenge by Bexley Council came as campaigners and the local MP stepped up their fight by delivering a 5,000-strong petition to Downing Street on Thursday.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks gave the go ahead for the £200million energy-to-waste plant in Norman Road, Belvedere, last month, to the outrage of local residents and politicians.

Erith and Thamesmead MP John Austin (Lab) had written to the Mayor at the end of last month seeking his support in the legal challenge.

Mr Livingstone said: "The decision to give the green light to an incinerator at Bexley undermines our battle against climate change and is not in the best interests of London as a whole.

"Unless the Government reviews its position, London will be surrounded by a ring of fire as boroughs opt only for burning over recycling and new energy from waste technologies."

Joining the campaigners in Westminster were Bexleyheath and Crayford MP David Evennett (Con), Belvedere ward councillor David Leaf (Con), representatives from BADAIR (Bexley And District Against Incineration Risks), the vice-chairman of the Belvedere Community Forum and the vice chairman of a waste minimising and recycling focus group.

Mr Evennett, who has also tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons against the incinerator decision, said: "The consequences for residents across the borough will be considerable if the incinerator is constructed, and that is why I have opposed the incinerator since 1990.

"We have taken residents’ concerns to the prime minister and expressed the strong local opposition to this proposal on environmental and transport grounds."

Cllr Leaf added: "In the space of five weeks around 5,000 people have signed and registered their disgust at the Minister’s decision to allow the incinerator to be built.

"I would like to thank everyone who signed and will be writing to both the prime minister and the Department for Trade and Industry for their response. I would also like to thank everyone who helped collect signatures as they have done a tremendous job."

Processing an average of 585,000 tonnes of waste each year over a three-decade period, the plant proposed for the site on the River Thames could become Europe’s largest energy-from-waste incinerator.

* More on the Belvedere Incinerator campaign in next week’s Bexley Extra.