PROTESTERS have gathered at Enfield Civic Centre to urge councillors to reject the plans for a waste plant in New Southgate.

The demonstration is ahead of tonight's Full Council meeting where councillors are due to debate the Pinkham Way waste plant proposal.

Mary Ascione, 70, of Milton Grove, is among those who have been collecting signatures for a petition opposing the North London Waste Authority plans.

She said: “Nobody wants it, everybody is entirely opposed to what they are planning.

“I went to all the shops last week and nobody said they wanted it, but the people I'm talking to are asking what chance we have of stopping them.”

Calum Land, a 40-year-old father living in Maidstone Road, said he had received a leaflet from his local Labour councillors criticising the previous Conservative administration in Enfield for not doing enough to stop the Pinkham Way plans.

But he said: “This seems to be being used by some councillors as a political excuse to apportion blame.

“I really don't give a damn about the political background to this, we just want it stopped.”

Protesters believe the waste plant, handling 300,000 tonnes of household rubbish a year, will bring added pollution, congestion, and blight to homes and businesses in the New Southgate area.

Conservatives in Enfield have tabled a motion calling for the council to stand up against the plans, and urging Labour to back out of the North London Waste Plan which includes the Pinkham Way proposal.

But Labour councillors have countered that the previous Tory administration in the borough did not do enough to stop the plans when they first emerged in 2009.