A GERMAN company which has been selected as the preferred bidder to build a waste-to-power incinerator in the North Yard at Devonport Naval Base, plans to transport the ash it produces to Buckfastleigh.

MVV Umwelt, which has yet to agree the final details of the plant, has said it wants to bring thousands of tonnes of ash by lorries to Whitecleaves Quarry.

It intends to build a plant there which would transform the ash into material for road building as well as other construction.

Some 56,000 tonnes of the material would be taken to the plant annually and the company maintains there would be no dust because it would be damped down before it left the naval base.

The firm has yet to formally approach Buckfastleigh Town Council, but the matter was brought to members' attention at their monthly meeting on Wednesday evening by County Cllr Stuart Barker.

With few details available discussion was limited, but deputy clerk Barrie Morgan told the Advertiser that it would almost certainly be included in next month's agenda.

When Heathfield firm Gilpin Demolition took the lease on Whitecleaves Quarry in 2008 and applied to process a range of waste materials there, the scheme provoked hundreds of complaints.

Householders were worried about noise, dust and pollution.

Last month, the Green Party candidate who contested the Newton Abbot seat in the general election condemned the Plymouth incinerator plan.

Corinne Lindsey, policy officer for the party in south Devon, said it was short sighted, outdated and an environmental disaster.

'Here was an opportunity to adopt a sensible and progressive solution to waste management which would encourage recycling, reclaim valuable resources, have a negligible environmental impact and create local jobs with the added benefit of not being a burden on the public purse,' she said.

'Instead our elected representatives have, yet again, demonstrated short-term and unimaginative thinking in predictably adopting the incineration option.'

Next Friday, representatives of MVV Umwelt are due to hold a consultation and exhibition in St Luke's Church Hall, Buckfastleigh, between 1pm and 7pm, to explain its proposals to the public.