CONTROVERSIAL plans to create a £200m waste treatment facility in North Yorkshire are to come under public scrutiny.

A series of exhibitions are planned across the county to allow the public to find out more about the proposal for Allerton Park, near Knaresborough.

Currently around half the waste created by North Yorkshire’s residents each year currently goes to landfill, with the rest recycled at the kerbside.

However it is claimed the new facility will increase recycling and create renewable energy and electricity from the rubbish thrown away by householders – cutting the county’s landfill by at least 90 per cent.

Project director Bill Jarvis said: "The new facility will take leftover household rubbish from across York and North Yorkshire and do something useful with it rather than burying it in landfill."

A planning application is expected to be submitted early next year and, if approved, the new centre will become operational by early 2015.

However the scheme, being put forward by the county council and City of York Council, has attracted criticism. An action group has been set up to fight the plan which has the support of campaign group Friends of the Earth.

Exhibitions will be held at Richmond’s Station on October 19, from 9.30am to 5.30pm; the Golden Lion, Northalllerton, on October 20, from 9am to 5.30pm; the Crown Spa Hotel, Scarborough, on October 21 from 9am to 5.30pm; the Ryedale Indoor Bowls Centre, Norton, on October 22 from 9am to 6pm; and the King’s Manor, York, on October 23 from 9am to 5.30pm.

Further information can be found on the project’s website - allerton-waste-recovery-park.co.uk