VILLAGERS have backed a move to launch crowdfunding campaign and seek expert advice on how to battle against a proposed asphalt plant near their homes.

A public meeting called by the Communities Against Toxins group heard residents of villages surrounding the Allerton Park incinerator, beside the A1(M) between Boroughbridge and Knaresborough, voice both bewilderment and anger over Tynedale Roadstone Limited’s scheme.

In its planning application to North Yorkshire Council the firm states there would be “demand” for its materials in the area to help build and maintain road surfaces and represent a “sustainable development”.

The documents state Tynedale has various long-term supply agreements with surfacing and maintenance companies in Yorkshire, while its two asphalt plants are in Newcastle and County Durham.

The firm has claimed there would be “no significant effects” on air quality as a result of the scheme and that traffic generated by the plant was unlikely to cause any safety concerns. The claims are disputed by campaigners.

The meeting heard residents of the surrounding villages had been promised the Allerton Park incinerator would not lead to further industrialisation of the rural area and claims that it would be more appropriate to site the asphalt plant in an industrial zone.

Campaigner Michael Emsley told the meeting at Great Ouseburn Village Hall he had run an asphalt plant and if approved the plant would spark a threat of an explosion beside the landmark energy from waste recovery park used by North Yorkshire and York councils.

The meeting was told that many residents would be downwind of dust particles and “toxic threats” from the plant.

Mr Emsley said: “I am concerned about the human health impacts of some of the nasty materials. Benzine is a particularly horrible chemical and some of its derivatives are even nastier.

Residents heard claims the plant was likely to create contaminated water which would seep into watercourses as there was no way of processing it and lorries visiting the asphalt plant would exacerbate the existin queues of waste trucks on the A-road outside the incinerator.

Nearly 800 objections had been lodged over the proposal, the meeting heard, and residents of villages in a five-mile radius of the site state they had been completely unaware of the proposal until recently.

Residents overwhelmingly supported a move to launch a concerted campaign, backed by crowdfunding, work to attract opposition from residents of Knaresborough and Boroughbridge and urgently seek expert advice ahead of a likely decision by the council’s strategic planning committee early next year.

One resident told the meeting how she and her husband had recently moved to the area to be nearer to their grandchildren in Marton cum Grafton.

She added: “We came for dark sky, the clean fresh air and now this is happening. We’re appalled, and particularly appalled that the playground for Marton cum Grafton school is so close.