A NORTH Yorkshire council has paid nearly £530,000 for the advice of consultants over a proposed waste incinerator.

Controversial plans to build Allerton Waste Recovery Park, next to the A1(M) between York and Harrogate, have not yet received planning permission, but have already cost North Yorkshire County Council just over half a million pounds in fees for legal and professional advice.

The project is designed to tackle the county’s waste problems and reduce the amounts councils have to pay in landfill tax, as well as producing enough energy to power thousands of homes.

The county council entered into a commercial agreement for the provision of a long-term waste management service contract with AmeyCespa.

Under the agreement, the City of York Council agreed to pay 25 per cent of the consultancy costs in a joint waste management agreement with the county council, which has agreed to pay the remaining 75 per cent.

City of York Council paid about £245,000 for the project last year – a figure which also included other project management costs involved in the scheme. The previous year it paid £400,940 towards the incinerator project.

In the financial year 2011 to 2012, North Yorkshire County Council spent approximately £530,000 on professional advisors on issues such as legal matters, mineral surveys, procurement and planning advice.

The plans are set to go before the council for planning approval on October 30.

If approved, the £1.4bn facility will be operated by AmeyCespa through a 25-year deal and backed by £65m in private finance initiative funding.

A spokeswoman for the county council said: “North Yorkshire County Council’s development control team is continuing to work through the Allerton Waste Recovery Park planning application, and we expect the final report on the planning application to be considered by the council’s Planning and Regulatory Functions Committee on Tuesday, October 30.

“We will be publishing details of the arrangements for the meeting as soon as they are confirmed.”

There has been opposition to the plans from a number of sources.

In February, Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee voted to “strongly oppose” the plans on a number of points, including concerns over fumes from the site and the scale of the proposals, and questioned whether the need for the facility had been proven.