An appeal to build a clinical waste incinerator that would see a “nine-storey” chimney built in the countryside should be dismissed, Cambridgeshire County Council has said.

The authority has called for the planning inspector to dismiss the appeal to build the new incinerator in Somersham after an eight day long inquiry into the plans.

The county council refused the application to expand the waste facility, run by Envar Composting Limited in St Ives Road, last year.

The company had asked for permission to build a new healthcare waste incinerator, as well as a pellet fertiliser production facility, a woodchip biomass fueled storage building, and a vehicle refuelling station.

At the final day of the inquiry this week (March 1), the county council’s representative said the height of the incinerator’s chimney would harm the countryside.

They highlighted that the chimney was proposed to be 26 metres tall, which they said was the “equivalent of a nine-storey tower”.

The representative also sought to question and raise doubts over the evidence and conclusions put forward by the appellants own landscape and visual impact expert.

The county council representative added that the authority was no longer looking to pursue its second reason for refusal, which related to the perception of harm that the incinerator could cause.

However, they said these concerns should still be given weight in the planning balance.

The representative said while the county council accepted the risk level was considered to be “in tolerable allowances”, they said it was “not possible to rule out adverse health effects from the incinerator completely”.

They said: “The council’s case is that the proposals will lead to harm in terms of landscape and visual impact and therefore harm the countryside.

“The council recognises the benefits which would follow from the proposals, however in the council’s view the benefits would not significantly outweigh the harms.

“Accordingly, it is the council’s case that this appeal should be dismissed.”

The representative of the waste company argued the county council had failed to fully recognise the benefits the proposals could offer, including a reduction in greenhouse gases, new permanent jobs, and an increase in biodiversity.

The representative also looked to question the county council’s opposition to the proposed chimney for the clinical waste incinerator.

They said: “What you have heard has demonstrated not just the obvious extent and compliance with the plan and the number and weight of the proposals benefits, but that the county council’s case against these proposals could scarcely be narrower or less substantial.

“A case concerned entirely with a chimney measuring 26m high by 1.07m wide in grey tone.

“The chimney, the county council acknowledged, will be a slender feature with colour materiality the least obtrusive and secured by condition.

“Along with the proposals as a whole, it has been designed so as to, as far as possible, be sympathetic to and assimilate with its surroundings, and to respect the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside. It is in short, in design terms, the best it can be.”

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The representative highlighted that it had been alleged by some members of the public that the clinical waste incinerator could cause harm to people’s health and wellbeing, but said the science showed there was “no such thing”.

They argued the county council should have approved the application when it went before the planning committee last year rather than “forcing” the company to fight an appeal.

They asked for the planning inspector to recommend that the appeal is allowed, so that the development can go ahead.

They also put forward an application for the county council to pay the waste company’s costs for lodging and fighting the appeal.

The planning inspector explained that they expect to make their recommendation on whether the appeal should be allowed or dismissed in around four weeks time.

They added that they expected it would take a similar amount of time after that for the Secretary of State to weigh up everything and decide the outcome of an appeal.