IT is claimed that the £120 million Worcestershire incinerator could in fact cost £1 billion.

This could be a very conservative estimate, as £120m would only be the capital costs and this could be 50 per cent higher.

It does not take into account interest rates, exchange rates and maintenance costs of this PFI, which could be multiplied by seven to ten times, easily taking it over £1bn.

All incinerator costs will be met by the taxpayers of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, at a time when cuts to public services will be in excess of over £100m in both counties. There are much cheaper ways of dealing with waste.

Neither Herefordshire nor Worcestershire county councils have a final business plan, or a full cost appraisal of alternatives. It seems that they are clueless about the costs, which is incredible, given the sums of money involved in this project.

Why is everything so secretive?

There should be transparency, this is public money. There should be a full financial investigation into the waste contract, and proposed incinerator soon.

I call on all taxpayers and all political parties to support this, if they care how our money is spent.

There is an overcapacity of incinerator space in the West Midlands. The incinerator is not needed anywhere.

The landfill argument is a red herring as there are better cheaper ways to divert waste from landfill and to create energy. Increasing recycling is a good start, but although other councils are actually paid for their recyclables, we are charged more as our recycling increases.

Both county councils have a collective responsibility to protect the public purse and carry out due diligence. Are they aware of this because it doesn’t look like it?

LOUISE BROOKES, Hartlebury, Worcestershire.