A NEW multi-million pound waste transfer and waste recycling complex will rise from the ashes of Bidston incinerator - the battleground for a fierce toxic pollution clash in the early 1990s.

People-power forced the abandonment of a massively controversial plan to create an experimental power station at Bidston Moss to convert domestic rubbish into elec-tricity.

The project was eventually ditched after a series of health-warnings from waste incineration experts. But the imposing 76-metre incinerator chimney stack remained to cast a threatening shadow over local communities until its removal last summer.

Bulldozers have moved in to level the 3.5 hectare site after the demolition of the remainder of the complex, in readiness for a new development which will include a household recycling centre, a waste transfer station, material recycling facility and composting unit.

There will also be provision for an educational facility for both local schools and the community.

Large-scale composting has traditionally been carried out in the open air, but increasing environmental awareness and the need for complete sanitisation because of toxic levels in unmanaged compost, has led to the use of more advanced processes, including "in vessel" systems.

Under this system bio-waste is treated inside sealed vessels where temperature and humidity are controlled to provide beneficial microbes with ideal conditions to accelerate the composting process.

Planning approval for the proposed redeveloped recycl-ing centre and waste transfer station has already been granted.

A planning application for the materials recycling facility is under consideration and a further application for the composting unit will be submitted in the near future.

The original incinerator plant was commissioned and became operational in 1977. It was in service until the early 1980s when it was shut down and the site became derelict. Plans were submitted to reopen it on a bigger scale in 1991, but the company behind the scheme (Bybrook Waste and Power) decided to withdraw because of the scale of opposition.

Objections to the £30m expansion scheme rocketed after American Professor Paul Connett - a world authority on waste incineration - warned of potential dangers to children if the giant power plant went ahead.