JERSEY must find a replacement for the Bellozanne incinerator within four months or suffer the consequences.

Environment and Public Services president Senator Philip Ozouf made that stark warning as he finalised a public consultation document on his committee’s waste strategy.

With the current incinerator rapidly nearing the end of its productive life, and the Island still undecided about multi-million-pound replacement technology, the Senator was critical of previous committees for not acting more decisively.

‘The decision on the new plant at Bellozanne has been taking far too long,’ he said.

‘The existing plant will come to the end of its working life in 2008 and the process has been going on for two years and is long overdue.

‘I wish to state emphatically that I will not accept any more delays in the decision-making – the consequences are far too serious to contemplate.

I have made it absolutely clear that the decision must be made by September or October this year for whatever plant we decide to go for.

The current incinerator will not be operational after 2008, so the Island will be left with no means of disposing of its rubbish.’ Senator Ozouf would not reveal details of the six short-listed options under consideration or what kind of waste processing technology these companies specialised in.

However, he did say that whatever technology was chosen would have to deal with all the Island’s waste.