Carlisle City Council will decide tonight whether to formally oppose the construction of a controversial waste incinerator plant, ahead of an Environment Agency decision on whether to grant a permit for its operation.

Permission has already been granted by Cumbria County Council to energy company Fortum for the construction of a waste incinerator at Kingmoor Park, on the northern edge of Carlisle.

But before it can be built, the Environment Agency must grant a permit for it to operate - the application for which has recently been submitted.

In light of the agency’s impending decision, the city council’s executive is now putting together a group to field the concerns of both residents and the council’s own environmental health team.

City council deputy leader and Conservative councillor Gareth Ellis said the city needed to “have confidence” that “lives aren’t going to be made worse” by the construction of the proposed incinerator.

“We will set up a group to feed into the Environment Agency’s consideration of the incinerator, ahead of its decision on a permit to operate,” Mr Ellis said.

“We’re going to carry out air quality assessments, project what the impact would be of the building and operating of this site, as well as all the transport that it would generate.”

And at tonight’s city council meeting, the local authority will debate whether to formally oppose the construction of the incinerator, in light of long-held worries over its proximity to housing, possible impact over air quality and the amount of traffic it would generate.

The developers were given permission as part of their application for planning permission for lorries to make 90 journeys per day to and from the site.

Tonight’s debate will come off the back of a motion which will be presented by Green Party councillor Helen Davison, who is asking the council to join “the widespread opposition of residents to the development.”

“I’m opposed to the incinerator in all its forms,” Dr Davison said.

“We shouldn’t be burning waste at this point in our history.

“It will be burning a lot of plastic. And once you’ve burned it you’ve destroyed it, and it can’t be useful again.”

Mr Ellis said he plans to support Dr Davison’s motion tonight.

The incinerator’s developers, Fortum, has stressed through the planning process that all emissions from the site would be monitored, and within safe limits.