CONTROVERSIAL plans for a renewable energy plant on Teesside have been given the go-ahead by councillors.

But environmental campaigners, who fear the plant will not be safely operated, have vowed to continue their battle.

During a heated meeting at Hartlepool Borough Council, the proposed plant at Seaton Meadows landfill, which would be fuelled by methane gas, was approved by a majority of ten votes to three.

Mike Young, of Friends of the Earth, was asked to leave the meeting after he refused to stop interrupting with his concerns over safety.

Friends of the Earth is worried that the facility will be un-manned and will be run remotely from a base in Salford, in Manchester.

The group's Hartlepool co-ordinator, Iris Ryder, intends challenging the council and has written to the local council watchdog, the Standards Board for England.

She said after the meeting: "This will be taken further. We feel there has been an injustice and we will look at ways of overturning this decision.

"We have written to the Standards Board expressing our concern over the way our objections were handled.

"We don't believe our concerns were addressed properly and we are looking at ways of possibly appealing."

Councillor Bill Iseley, chairman of the council's planning committee, defended the decision, saying the methane-burning plant was essential for the town and had received backing from independent agencies such as English Nature and the Health and Safety Executive.

He said: "They knew it was a very necessary procedure. The methane gas has to be burned off, and this proposal was a good way of ensuring it was done properly.

"This was not the most difficult application I have had to deal with in 40 years of planning, but it is the first time I have ever had to ask someone to leave a meeting because they would not be quiet."

Ian Fenney, of Alab Environmental Services, which will run the site and which is a subsidiary of waste management firm Able UK, said it ran 42 similar sites safely throughout the UK.

He said: "The engines are designed to run on gas and there is no potential for an explosion. It is a green scheme and it will limit global warming."