AN MP has demanded the costs of alternatives to a £1.2bn waste incinerator scheme be revealed to councillors before they vote on whether to give it the go-ahead.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, who has battled North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council's plan to site the plant beside the A1(M) at Allerton Park, near Knaresborough, issued the call after the county council's executive approved the plan on Tuesday.

He said while the authority had acknowledged there are alternatives to its scheme that were not available when the project began in 2010, it had refused to investigate the costs of them.

Mr Jones said: "There is now capacity at many incinerators around the North Yorkshire region.

"These incinerators could easily deal with any left over rubbish after recyclable materials have been removed from North Yorkshire’s waste."

He added the council needed to investigate the cost of fixed long-term contracts with its current operators.

He said: “The Allerton Waste Recovery Park is going to cost £1.2billion over 25 years.

"It won’t save any money for 15 years – in fact it will cost tens of millions of pounds over that period compared to landfill."

The council's executive member for waste management, Councillor Chris Metcalfe, said its officers had determined that over the 25 years of the contract, the proposal remained the best long-term available solution to the disposal of waste.