BARRY environmentalists are gearing up for another battle to prevent a biomass plant being built in Barry.

Barry and Vale Friends of the Earth are launching a campaign against Sunrise Renewables Ltd's latest planning proposal to install a wood burning renewable energy plant on Woodham Road, Barry.

Five years ago the company had their plans rejected by the Vale council, but went on to win a public appeal against the refusal.

The company successfully appealed against a Vale Council planning committee decision to reject their application, landing the authority with an £80,000 bill for costs following a three-day hearing in June 2010.

The company had wanted to build a 9MW wood fuelled renewable energy plant at Woodham Road, Barry Dock, but planning committee members decided not to accept council officer recommendations to give the development the green light.

Barry and Vale Friends of the Earth Coordinator and Docks Incinerator Action Group member Keith Stockdale said: "People are up-in-arms over letters sent to homes on Dock View Road by so-called Sunrise.

"This shell of a company has failed for five years to progress the planning permit forced on us by the Welsh Government. Their plan was unsound from the start, but they are trying to use it to force a quite different incinerator on us with minimal information and no appraisal.

"The Vale Council should send the plan back as inadequate and tell Sunrise it does not fit with current aspirations for clean development and light industry on this part of the Dock.

"The Docks Incinerator Action Group has sprung back into life and will fight this proposal right through."