PLANS to build a £30m waste processing plant and power station have been condemned.

More than 250 villagers from Wool and the surrounding area vowed to fight the proposed new 'mechanical biological treatment' complex at Winfrith after hearing it explained in detail by county planners at a public meeting last night.

The site is included in the Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset Waste Local Plan and would be able to convert 120,000 tonnes a year of non-recyclable rubbish into organic biodegradable waste and a burning fuel more

efficient than coal. At least 184 rubbish trucks a day would have to use the A352 to reach the facility, planned for a field south of Winfrith Technology Park.

Residents, who crammed into Wool's primary school hall heard, during two hours of questioning of the county council's heads of planning, transport planning and waste management, that the seven-acre plant would be fully self-contained, odourless and noiseless.

Head of waste management Adrian Poller told villagers: "The only noise you will hear will be from the trucks delivering the waste. With the door to the plant shut you cannot hear or smell what is inside."

He said there was a chance the plant could be the first of three built in Dorset during the next 30 years, but denied in that case it would take waste from all over Dorset.

Mr Poller said: "The facility would be used to process waste from south and west Dorset only."

County head of planning Andrew Price admitted Dorchester was the ideal geographical location for the plant but claimed there was no suitable plot of land near the town.

He said the plant needed seven acres of land, had to be near an industrial area and a primary road network.

Mr Price said: "After an examination of all the options we believe Winfrith was the best location for the plant."

He added: "If the plant was there now up and running, people would not realise it was there. It will be hidden from view, and there will be no noise or smell. The only thing people will be aware of is more traffic on the roads."

The meeting heard that a daily average of 184 HGVs and 50 cars would travel to the plant on the A352 from the east and west.

Transport planning group manager Paul Willis said 9,500 vehicles currently used the road, and the plant would result in a 1.1 per cent increase in traffic flow. He said: "That is a relatively small increase."

A show of hands taken after meeting showed virtually unanimous opposition to the proposal. If eventually approved the plant could be operational by 2008.

Villagers claimed the busy A352 would not be able to cope with the extra traffic and the plant should be built near a much bigger area of population.

Wool resident Graham Brown said planners had deliberately picked Winfrith because it was in one of the least populated areas, and so would have a smaller number of objectors.

He said: "Common sense would say the first development site would be nearest the biggest conurbation which produces the most waste. It doesn't make sense otherwise."

Chairman of Wool Parish Council Robert Hyde, who chaired the meeting, said: "The way all parishioners feel is that it is fundamentally in the wrong place.

"Nobody is against the technology, it is just that the processes behind its location do not seem to have been thought through."

Chairman of neighbouring Winfrith Parish Council Sandra Ellis vowed to use a £12,000 'fighting fund' to examine the proposals in detail.

She said: "We will consult and go through it very carefully to make our objections heard."

The deadline for comments on the proposals from local people is Thursday November 11.

A public inquiry into the Waste Local Plan will then take place in May 2005, with a final version due to be approved in early 2006.

Group manager of transport planning Paul Willis said: "There will clearly be objections to this site. We now have to put together cogent reasons why it should remain in the plan."