A YEAR ago campaigners celebrated the end of a long battle to close a controversial waste incineration plant.

Now, on the anniversary of the closure, residents living near the Shanks site at New Inn say the deserted plant should be demolished.

The plant - formerly known as Rechem - was mothballed on March 30, 2002, with bosses saying it was unlikely to be used again.

Shanks switched its New Inn incineration operations to its Fawley plant in Southampton.

Fifty jobs were lost in Torfaen as a result, although a number of administration and IT staff remain on site.

Shanks said the decision to close the plant was taken due to over-capacity at their UK operations.

And residents say if the site is not going to be used to burn waste again, the company should go altogether.

The plant was dogged by controversy after it began operating in 1973. Residents and politicians had united in calling for an end to the burning of toxic waste products such as dioxins and PCBs so close to homes.

Dorothy Preece, 77, of Station Road, Griffithstown, and spokeswoman for Mothers and Children Against Toxic Waste, said: "We feel that if nothing is going to happen and it's not going to re-start, then the whole place should be demolished.

"The stack is an eyesore and a reminder of all the problems we have had with the plant. It's a blot on the landscape and if it's gone we know that they will not start up again."

Another campaigner, David Powell, a 55-year-old maths teacher, of Pentopyn Road, Cwmbran, said the site should be remembered as a monument to a flawed technology.

But he added: "The incinerator stacks serve as a warning. I would rather see the incinerator dead than dormant, and would rather see any contaminants gone, but at least we know that as every year goes by any poisons are degrading and the plant is no longer adding to the problem." No-one was available for comment from Shanks.