PLANS for a multi-million pound waste treatment plant are gathering pace.

The North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project (NWRWTP) brings together five counties across the region – Flintshire, Denbighshire, Anglesey, Gwynedd and Conwy – to manage rubbish more efficiently as the country runs low on landfill sites.

An outline business case was completed and £142 million of funding from the Welsh Assembly has been secured for the project.

Thirty bidders who expressed interest in the project have now been reduced to ten.

One proposal made was to incinerate waste at Deeside Industrial Estate, leading to concerns from councillors about health risks.

But bosses say no decisions have been taken on a final site or on the method of waste disposal.

Sealand councillor Christine Jones told a meeting of the environment scrutiny commiitee: “The way I interpret it is that the site will be in Deeside and that concerns me.”

But Neal Cockerton, head of technical services at Flintshire Council, insisted: “No site is a definite site.

“Those bidding could have land in their own county that they want to use. Deeside is one of a number of sites.”

Director of environment, Carl Longland, added: “We might be down to three bidders and each one may have a different site in mind. We don’t know what sites we’re going to end up with.”

Bosses are now considering the use of rail to transport waste into the new facility.

A decision on the final bidder will be made in May.