A £165 MILLION incinerator was officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester at Hartlebury Trading Estate today, after a heated eight-year battle with residents.

The mighty EnviRecover plant will transform 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste into electricity each year - enough to power all of the homes in Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley combined.

Project leaders confessed the process has ‘not been easy’, with an eight-day public enquiry launched by the Secretary of State, a council tribunal and action groups fighting the scheme at every stage.

But Tony Miller, cabinet member for environment on Worcestershire County Council, which led the plans, said he was ‘proud’ of the end result.

Cllr Miller joined the Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire and representatives from Herefordshire Council, Mercia Waste Management and contractor Hitachi Zosen Inova as His Royal Highness the duke unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark the end of a 33-month construction programme.

“We know that the environment is a priority for our residents and a sustainable environment is important for the economy,” said Cllr Miller. “EnviRecover will turn waste that would have otherwise gone to landfill into enough electricity to power 32,000 homes and this is great news for the region.”

Operators claim the facility, which has been up-and-running since October, will see the ‘virtual elimination’ of landfill for residual waste across the county, which would otherwise have exhausted available sites by 2023.

As well as producing electricity for the National Grid, the plant extracts bottom ash to be recycled into construction metals and iron which is sold on to scrap metal dealers.

But not everyone is happy to see the scheme come to fruition.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Action Group, which has fought the facility since it was proposed, insists the plant is too costly to run for the amount of rubbish being recycled.

Spokesman Jane Green told The Shuttle: “The new incinerator in Hartlebury will lock Herefordshire and Worcestershire into expensive, polluting waste treatment and low recycling rates for the next 25 years.”

Paddy Kelly, general manager at Mercia Waste Management, said money being made from the plant is currently ‘balancing out’ outgoing costs.