ANGRY protesters tried to disrupt a Barnet Council cabinet meeting last night as they discussed plans for a new waste site on the fringe of the borough.

More than 100 residents and climate activists met at Hendon Town Hall as part of a co-ordinated campaign by the Pinkham way Alliance angry at plans for the A406 site.

The North London Waste Authority plans to build a large new waste handling and recycling facility at the former sewage works site, to meet EU regulations.

But residents say the huge factory will damage their health and create hundreds of extra traffic movements each day, as well as destroying what has become a public space in recent years.

Barnet Council also wants to use a third of the space as a new depot to base is operations, moving away from the Mill Hill East site.

During the meeting a group of protesters managed to get into grounds behind the town hall, below the room the meeting was taking place, and started chanting “No to Pinkham Way”.

Councillor Richard Cornelius, who is in charge of planning, told a hostile audience the final decision lay with Haringey Council, and alternative measures were needed to avoid hefty landfill taxes.

He added: “This is not something we can live with, the tax on landfill is increasing and we have to find other ways to dispose of rubbish.

“We do have to have a plan to avoid being one of the first boroughs to get an EU fine.”

Paul Scott, a member of the alliance, posed a series of questions about the plans to Cllr Cornelius about the sustainability of the plans, asking if Barnet Council promoted polluting the borough.

He was told the site was designated for industrial use and “we are anti any unpleasant facility being constructed here” and “I don’t believe it will harm residents in the area”.

Councillor Brian Coleman, cabinet member for the environment, told the meeting the “environmental impact on this borough will be an overall improvement” to which a resident shouted “rubbish”.

Cllr Coleman added: “Barnet has no choice but to adopt this policy. This site on the Friern Barnet Sewage works is by far the most logical site, not just for this borough but for Haringey.”

Colin Parish, who lives in Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, less than half a mile from the site, said the group had expected the plans to b approved by the cabinet.

He added: “We’re disappointed but the next fight is at Haringey’s planning committee which we expect to be in May.

“The thing we have on our side now is time and it will enable us to make more people aware of what’s going on as the consultation has been non-existent with residents so far.”