THE WASTE incinerator being built outside Stonehouse has been connected to the grid, paving the way for the first trials of the facility later this year.

Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB), which is constructing the incinerator at Javelin Park on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council for £500m, announced the facility now has electricity this week.

The construction milestone means cold commissioning can begin - tests that will make sure equipment is working but will not involve the burning of waste.

The Labour MP for Stroud has not welcomed the news.

“There is little to celebrate as work progresses at the incinerator at Javelin Park,” David Drew said.

“Incineration is still the wrong process in the wrong place.

“It is bad for our air quality, our environment and tax-payers.

“The county council can’t properly fund children’s services, adult social care or our roads, yet it has pressed ahead spending half a billion pounds on this monstrosity.”

The county council disagreed, pointing instead to the savings the incinerator will bring.

A spokesperson said: “David Drew doesn’t know what he’s talking about - we’re spending more on adult social care and childrens’ services, and we’ve rolled out a £150m programme of investment into our roads that’s making a huge difference.

“That investment in frontline services is only possible because of the £100m Javelin Park will save taxpayers, whilst cleanly disposing of our waste that can’t be recycled.”

Mr Drew's Conservative rival, Siobhan Baillie, pointed residents to local councillors for more information and said: "Javelin Park was first identified for an energy from waste plant back in 2001. Now one is being built, it makes sense to connect it to the grid."

For Stroud's Greens, the incinerator amounts to "daylight robbery" of Gloucestershire's residents.

"UBB describe this as a construction milestone - in my opinion it is a milestone in the daylight robbery of the people of Gloucestershire," said the party's leader on the district council Martin Whiteside.

"The incinerator will cost our children and our children's children millions just to burn more and more material which we should be reducing and recycling instead.

"The electricity produced will be miniscule and could be more cheaply and cleanly produced from a wind turbine.

"Sadly we don't know exactly how much the incinerator will cost our children because the County ouncil are so ashamed of their sums that they have spent hundreds of thousands on pricey lawyers to keep it secret from Council taxpayers."

The county council is currently appealing an order from the Information Commissioner to release key financial information about the incinerator.

Campaigners have argued the information contained in an affordability report commissioned by the council needs to be made public to tell if the incinerator is good value.