A PUBLIC inquiry has started into Durham County Council's blueprint for waste management over the next 12 years.

The County Durham Waste Local Plan aims to reduce the amount of material taken to landfill and increase recycling.

A four-day hearing began at County Hall, Durham City, yesterday into objections against some of the proposed policies.

These include objections to the incorporation of Environment Agency policies on protecting groundwater into the criteria for choosing landfill sites.

The agency is concerned that leakage from buried waste could be an issue in east Durham, where there are major aquafers and geological damage caused by decades of mining.

Rick Long, assistant team leader of the council's planning policy team, said the agency's proposals had not yet been included "but in the last few weeks we have felt it would be appropriate for it to correspond with the Environment Agency's policies".

He said operators "feel we should take a different line to the Environment Agency and keep planning separate from pollution control''.

Lafarge Aggregates is objecting to the council identifying Thrislington Quarry, near Ferryhill, as a possible site for waste recycling but not landfill. The firm wants the site, which it operates, to be used for some landfill when quarrying ends, but the council is concerned about the impact on groundwater.

There is also an objection from Premier Waste Management, which wants the allocation of Tursdale Business Park, near Bowburn, as a site for the county's second aerobic digester.

The inspector is expected to announce his decisions later in the year.