Telford & Wrekin planners are recommending the controversial application to build a waste incinerator at Granville be thrown out.
They will recommend at a special meeting of the plans board on Monday that the scheme proposed by SITA UK should be rejected.
Planners say the incinerator would be “visually harmful” to the area and have a negative impact on the future recreational value of the site. They also believe there are better, alternative sites.
SITA is proposing an “energy from waste” incinerator next to the big Granville landfill site as the answer to the borough’s rubbish problems.
But more than 3,000 people signed a petition put together by the protest group Telford PAIN and the council received 250 individual complaints from residents.
Objections were also received from Friends of the Earth, five parish councils and the borough’s two MPs, David Wright and Mark Pritchard.
Telford &Wrekin council leader, Councillor Andrew Eade, said: “Officers consider there is enough capacity at other waste treatment facilities in the West Midlands that could take Telford & Wrekin’s municipal waste in the short term.”
Robert Saunders, co-ordinator, Telford Friends of the Earth, said: “Friends of the Earth opposes any incinerator proposal for anywhere within the borough.
“What we do strongly favour is the introduction of a weekly household food waste collection for local anaerobic digestion. This would help provide a sustainable source of local energy and a soil conditioner of benefit to local farms – as well as long term employment.”
Sita UK said in its application that the incinerator would burn 24 hours a day seven days a week in an attempt to fire up the 62,000 tonnes of waste it was predicted to manage.
The firm later said it was surprised and disappointed the proposals have been recommended for refusal .
Sita UK general manager Geraint Rees said he was still hopeful the plans board would approve the scheme.
“We have put together a robust application and we have worked closely with the planning department over several months to overcome any areas of concern,” he said. “We believed we had done that, so we are surprised by the recommendation.
“It is usual for there to be some objections when a waste management facility of this nature is planned, however, the facility would operate under stringent conditions which the planners acknowledge in their report.”