A controversial energy from waste plant north of Carlisle has been rubber-stamped by councillors - but it can not yet go ahead.

Despite winning overwhelming support from the County Council's development control committee, the £80m plant at Kingmoor Park, a short distance from the Lowry Hill housing estate and Kingmoor Nature Reserve, now needs ministerial approval.

Several residents spoke at the council meeting, which also heard a passionate plea to throw out the plan from Belah county councillor Alan Toole.

Speaking after the vote, he said: “I don't disagree with the idea of an energy-from-waste plant, but this is being put in the wrong place. It's too near the housing estate.”

Mr Toole said opponents to the development, which will take household waste and burn it at high temperatures to generate electricity, should now take their fight to the Sajid Javid MP, The Secretary of State with the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The final decision on whether it goes ahead will rest with him.

Mr Toole said: “I've told the residents that it's not over yet. The answer is to lobby the secretary of state; and I will also be lobbying the MP for Carlisle John Stevenson.”

The developer has repeatedly said the new plant, which will feature a 70 metre high chimney, poses no threat to health.

But objectors – including Lowry Hill resident Peter Whytock – say they fear the potential impact of emissions, which may be carried over residential areas of the city by the prevailing wind.

Mr Whytock said: “Approving this development was fundamentally wrong. The big issue is the prevailing wind direction.

“I'd like to think that it would not go through but it's a bit disconcerting that it was approved by such a strong majority.”

Just days before the proposal was voted on, the Cumbrian campaign group Radiation Free Lakeland also lodged an objection, describing the plant as a “blight on character of the area” and saying that it would be massively out of place in Carlisle.

The group's letter described the plant's likely visual impact as "dominant and oppressive".

But Tim Jervis, for the developer Verus, said: “There is absolutely no risk to health. We are extremely careful to avoid that. We are subject to stringent UK and European Commission pollution controls."

He said there would be no odours and no toxic emissions. The project would also create around 40 jobs.

It is not clear how long the ministerial review of the project will take but it can not get underway until that is granted.