A 10,000-name petition has been handed over in the culmination of a major campaign by the Surrey Mirror.

The paper has acted to up the stakes in its year-long campaign against an energy-from-waste incinerator.

Staff from the Mirror drove all 10,000 signatures from concerned residents in Reigate, Redhill, Merstham, Nutfield, Bletchingley, Godstone, Caterham and Oxted, to County Hall, the seat of Surrey County Council – and delivered them, appropriately enough, in a wheelie bin.

Thousands of householders filled in the petition forms when news first broke in July that Surrey Waste Management was planning to build the £50million plant.

By Christmas the forms were full and when SWM submitted its 800-page planning application in May, the Mirror was ready to demonstrate the strength of opposition in Redhill.

County council planning officers promised the forms would be taken into account but urged all 10,000 signatories to write to the council individually explaining their objections.

Beleaguered East Redhill Residents’ Association member Barry Cook, speaking at the ad-hoc meeting, said he was disappointed Redhill is being threatened by an incinerator for the second time.

In 1994 the European Development Corporation Limited planned to build an energy-from-waste plant at the same site.

But after a public inquiry in 1996 and an onslaught of local disapproval the secretary of state refused planning permission.

Residents and the Mirror are hoping for a repeat.

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